Stories from Baha® users

Meet some of the thousands of people around the world that have been reconnected to the world of sound through Baha^®. Scroll down and view their stories.

“A hundred times better than CROS”

Doug was on a business trip, on the flight back home, when he put the headset on and realised he couldn’t hear anything from it. There was something wrong with his hearing. Eventually he decided to get a Baha System after some time with a CROS hearing aid. The procedure involved in getting Baha was not that hard. “I was at the hospital for an hour, maybe. Including the paperwork and waiting time.” Describing the improvement that Baha meant for him, Doug continues “The clarity in sound is a hundred times better with the new Baha compared to a CROS hearing aid.”

“Give it back!”

Owen had no ear canal, and no middle ear and needless to say his hearing was greatly impaired. At first, Owen’s parents were given the option of doing nothing. His father, being a linguist, considered that option to be unacceptable. Owen’s parents discovered Baha and now Owen wears a Baha sound processor on a Baha Softband, making his delay in hearing a lot less. When trying out Baha for the first time, the audiologist took it off Owen’s head for a moment to demonstrate its functions to his mother. “He moved his hand towards the Softband with the processor, signalling quite clearly to ‘Give it back!’”, she laughs.

“She just lit up”

Born with conductive hearing loss and without almost any outer ear on the right side, Alyssa had a rather different start in life to most. She has no middle ear and a damaged outer ear. However, with an inner ear that was intact, Alyssa could be helped with Baha. When Alyssa first tried Baha on a Baha Softband, she immediately realised what it meant to hear like other people, her mother says. “She put it on and she just lit up!”

“I didn’t know I was deaf”

When Abby was eight, her mother whispered something in her ear and Abby replied that she couldn’t hear with that ear. They hadn’t suspected anything, but Abby had SSD, complete deafness in one ear. Abby explains why she didn’t tell anyone before. “I didn’t know I was deaf, because everything sounded normal to me.”

Life with Baha on both sides

Ellie lost her hearing in one of her ears in her thirties, and ten years later she lost the hearing in her good ear. She has bilateral cholesteatoma and says that before getting Baha on both sides, she didn’t feel good about herself. “On a personal level, I felt people had to be extra-cautious around me.”

Born almost completely deaf – without external ears

Active, well-spoken and intelligent. At first glance, there’s not much to show that Joshua Bull, now a teenage boy, was born almost totally deaf in both ears and with no external ears. Joshua had his first implant at the age of two, but since 2007 he has Baha on both sides. “Getting the second Baha was like getting HDTV.”

The musician who woke up deaf

Imagine waking up one morning and hearing nothing at all in your right ear. For Swiss musician Arnold Badertscher, thats just what happened almost ten years ago. It was an event that changed his life. From performing up to three jazz concerts per week, he found he could no longer play the way he used to. “You can play music for yourself when you don’t hear – but not with a group. And I love to make music with my group!” After three years, he came across Baha and Arnold is pleased with the result that his Divino gives him. “Afterwards it was fantastic! A new life opened up! I could hear again the sounds I’d been missing. Birds, the garden, my family’s voices… and of course the music.”

Constant ear infections gave Mia one deaf side

When you meet Mia Eliasson, you quickly realise that you’re dealing with a very active and outgoing 35-year old woman. She laughs a great deal, is a huge sports fan and manages a clothing shop for Gothenburg’s biggest football club. You couldn’t tell that for many years Mia suffered a considerable handicap – she couldn’t hear. Now she can, with help from Baha on both sides. “I have changed so much as a person since I got my bilateral Baha implants. Before, my self-confidence was nowhere near as high as it is now.”

“My life changed completely”

Jesús Sáez Carreras was only one year old, in 1964, when he got chronic otitis in his right ear. After medical negligence and emergency surgery at age nine, he was left with severe deafness that isolated him during most of his adolescence. Many years later, when presented with the possibility of Baha, he decided to try. “The results were simply spectacular. I couldn’t believe it!”

She wanted to hear her sons

Living with her husband and two sons in Madrid, Cristina Hernandez Puente is much like any other 35-year-old nurse. But having acquired a cholesteatoma in her left ear, much of her hearing life was cut off. No music, no speaking with friends and she was unable to hear her sons talking. “The first time I heard through a Baha sound processor, I was surprised. I could hear someone turning a page in a book. It was incredible.”

Implant-surgery as a baby

Quim Argiles Macía was born with severe bilateral congenital atresia. His mother Montse Macía didn’t want him to miss out on language development, so they decided to perform surgery when Quim was only five months old. Although the first years were tough, Montse has no regrets. “Quim would not be the same without his Baha.”