Strength Through Silence

“It felt like I was coming back up after being underwater for a long time.”

 

LWC 1^st Former, Nesta, is reflecting on how it felt to hear more clearly, having been fitted with cochlear implants.

 

“It sounded really noisy,” she laughs. “But I was really happy because I could hear again.”

 

12-year-old Nesta suffered hearing loss following treatment for congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation (CCAM), a rare lung disorder diagnosed during her mother’s 12-week scan.

 

“Cysts formed in Nesta’s lungs and continued to grow throughout pregnancy,” explains mum, Jo. “So she needed to be operated on immediately after birth.

 

“Nesta remained in hospital for three months. We don’t have a history of deafness in the family and so consider that medication was the most likely cause of her losing hearing.”

 

Nesta began wearing hearing aids until she started school, when her parents requested that she be fitted with cochlear implants. To mark Deaf Awareness Week, Nesta and her mum have been sharing their story.

 

“Putting Nesta forward for cochlear implants was a tough decision because there was a risk that she might lose her residual natural hearing,” continues Jo. “But following a six-hour operation at the age of five, we were delighted that she’d retained some of her hearing. This definitely helped her to learn to hear with her implants.”

 

Cochlear implants are small, electronic devices that bypass the damaged parts of the inner ear and stimulate the auditory nerve. The nerve sends these signals to the brain, which then processes them as sound. It takes time to learn how to hear with a cochlear implant, but for those with significant hearing loss, it’s regarded as providing a clearer, better quality of hearing compared to a traditional hearing aid.

 

“I can now hear people, even when they’re quite far away. The implants have also helped to boost my confidence.”

— Nesta, LWC 1st Form

 

“Before the implants, I found it quite difficult to hear what people were saying,” reveals Nesta. “I had little hearing aids, lip-read quite a lot and used sign language sometimes. It made me lose my confidence a bit because I couldn’t tell what people were talking about.”

 

With the new implants having been fitted, life was surely looking up? (if a little louder than before).

 

“Sadly, Nesta’s residual hearing began to deteriorate over the course of the following year,” reveals Jo. “She then had no hearing at all without the implants.”

 

The equipment that Nesta had been fitted with, in turn, developed a fault. “The implants began to dip in and out, along with developing an echo sound,” Jo continues. “Her ability to hear at all deteriorated and she became exhausted on a daily basis.”

 

In an attempt to restore Nesta’s hearing, she underwent another operation three years ago to remove the faulty implant and replace it with a different one from an alternative manufacturer.

 

“Nesta effectively had to learn how to hear again, because the way in which the electrical impulses operate varies between each manufacturer,” Jo offers.

 

Finally, through perseverance, Nesta was on the way to experiencing a world with sound once again.

 

“They’ve changed my life a lot,” she smiles. “I can now hear people, even when they’re quite far away. They’ve also helped to boost my confidence. My other cochlear implants were quite big compared to these and I also couldn’t pick up as much.”

   

Another boost to Nesta’s confidence has come courtesy of her love of climbing. Having tackled Snowdon back in 2018, she mastered Ben Nevis towards the end of last year and is now aiming to complete the Three Peaks by summiting Scafell Pike next year.

 

“I just love how proud I feel when I get to the top,” Nesta admits. “It’s so hard when you’re going up, but it just feels really good when you make it.”

 

One of Nesta’s role models is Jodie Ounsley, a former rugby player who also appears as Fury in Gladiators. Jodie was profoundly deaf as a child and became the youngest person in the country to be fitted with a cochlear implant when she was just a toddler.

 

“She’s great,” Nesta beams. “She recently climbed a mountain with weights on her back. She can do anything.”

 

It’s clearly this persistence and belief that anything is possible which appeals to Nesta, who is well-settled into life in the LWC 1^st Form after joining from Prince’s Mead in September.

 

“I love how big and free it feels here,” she admits. “Bramley House is also great. It’s really calm and all the teachers are nice.”

 

Nesta is also delighted to be able to flex her hockey skills on the LWC Astro (she plays for the LWC U13B Girls’ Team) and on the netball court – with the ability to hear the communication coming from her teammates. She also received a distinction in her recent London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) exam: “It’s a great way for her to maintain good speech and learn more words!” reflects Jo.

 

“Nesta has faced her hearing challenges with amazing resilience, patience, positivity and a great work ethic,” Jo concludes. “Environments with noise, water, wind or distance present some added difficulty, but she continues to navigate them with growing confidence. She may get more mentally fatigued, but she’s steadily learning how to manage her own wellbeing and is developing a thoughtful understanding that everyone has different needs.”

 

Along with an understanding that she can do anything she puts her mind to.