Meet Peter Moore

Way back in 1950 I was diagnosed by a Macquarie Street specialist to have single sided deafness.

Life went on and with one good ear I finished high school and university, eventually starting my own business in Sydney and later went into a partnership on the NSW Central Coast. My other interests included Church, sport and singing. With one good ear I managed to have roles in over 30 musical productions as well as singing in choirs and barber shopping.

Disaster struck on February 24, 2001 when I awoke extremely nauseous, dizzy and deaf. This deafness brought about a complete change in my life which included not only my life but my family’s also. How would I communicate with my little granddaughters? Life was definitely on the down turn. My wife and friends had great trouble writing things out and much paper was used up.

Professor Gibson, my ENT managed to get some hearing back, then followed a hearing aid, as well as lip reading with Better Hearing Australia (Central Coast).

The hearing aid worked for a while but regular tune ups were needed as my hearing continued to deteriorate. In July 2002 I was asked by Dr. Phillip Chang if I had ever considered a Cochlear Implant. I didn’t want to risk what little hearing I had by having an implant in my ‘better’ ear. What if something went wrong? But could my ‘bad’ ear hear again since it had been over 50 years without sound?

After a lot of testing and really nothing to lose I was implanted on my ‘deaf’ side in September. About six weeks after switch-on I could understand someone talking to me behind my back. No lip reading! What a change from a world of silence to being able to communicate again, albeit with some mild difficulty.

Eventually the hearing aid in my ‘good’ ear was no longer any use by itself, so the decision for a second implant was easy. My first operation had gone well and I had been in hospital less than 24 hours with minimum discomfort. I had the second implant and was switched on in April 2006. Being able to understand what I was hearing with the new ‘Freedom’ was much quicker than the earlier implant.

Because of binaural hearing, something I had not had for so long, I am now getting better at placing sounds and my hearing is getting better all the time. I can also use the phone.

Having a couple of different programs enables me to get the best out of the speech processors. Hearing in noisy environments, such as shopping centres and restaurants, is so much better with two implants and it’s now a joy to sit in a restaurant and talk to those around me.

In short having the second implant has given me a new lease of life and I have gained confidence again to go about by myself. Life is much better.