Deaf Woman Hears For The First Time In 28 Years (And It's Wonderful)

Heartwarming Moment Woman Hears For First Time In 28 Years

I didn't want to put this on. My expectations were far too high. Us in the deaf world would have all seen the damn videos of the 2% of people who have immediate success on activation day but none of the 98% who don't. I'm not saying it was unsuccessful, I've just got a long way to go.. My brain needs to stimulate these sounds I haven't heard for 28 years and make new pathways. I have to go back to the hospital over the next few months to be tuned and gradually introduced to this noisy (and I mean really noisy) world! I'm amazed at all the noises I hear even though it all sounds the same! Everything just seems impossible to me at the moment, like trying to focus the lenses of a camera on a moving target.. I just have to train my ear like an Olympian training for the Olympics now! Only time will tell... So for those who asked for it.. Here it is, the original was 10 mins long! Nobody wants to see that!

Posted by Jody Parcel on Wednesday, October 14, 2015

The touching moment a woman hears for the first time in 28 years has been captured on film.

Jody Parcel, 30, had a cochlear implant fitted so that she could hear the voices of her three young children, as well as her wedding vows to fiancé Jeremy Carne.

She told Wales Online: "I wanted to hear my wedding vows so I booked our wedding as soon as I was on the waiting list for the implant. He’s the one in the video and you can see by my face that hearing him was amazing."

Parcel is filmed just as the implant is switched on, her face is a picture of excitement and disbelief.

Parcel, who is from Rhondda Cynon Taf in Wales, started to go deaf when she was two years old but doctors couldn't understand why.

Over time her hearing deteriorated rapidly and throughout the past seven years she found that hearing aids no longer helped.

"I realised I was getting worse when my three-year-old started talking," she explained.

"I knew I couldn't hear or understand him as much as I did with my oldest. It was heartbreaking and I knew I had to undergo this procedure for my family."

The video above, which Parcel posted to her Facebook page, shows the moment her cochlear implants are switched on.

Writing on Facebook, she said that she was nervous to post the video online because of the high expectations for her to be able to hear everything first time.

"Us in the deaf world would have all seen the damn videos of the 2% of people who have immediate success on activation day but none of the 98% who don't," she said.

"I'm not saying it was unsuccessful, I've just got a long way to go."

Parcel had the implant fitted on her 30th birthday back in September. She then had to wait four weeks for it to heal before she could have the external part added.

Despite the long, drawn-out process she said it's been 100% worth it to hear her children for the first time.

She explained that her ear will now need to train "like an Olympian" to be able to differentiate noises properly.

"My brain needs to stimulate these sounds I haven't heard for 28 years and make new pathways," she wrote on Facebook. "I have to go back to the hospital over the next few months to be tuned and gradually introduced to this noisy (and I mean really noisy) world!"

Parcel said she also has a tick list so that when she can understand a sound, she will tick it off.

"I'm amazed at all the noises I hear even though it all sounds the same! Everything just seems impossible to me at the moment, like trying to focus the lenses of a camera on a moving target," she said.

The mum-of-three has likened her hearing journey to learning to walk again.

"If you haven’t walked for 28 years then the ultimate goal would be to run," she told Wales Online. "So when you try to stand up after all those years you will be able to stand for maybe a little bit, but day after day you will get stronger and stronger and pretty soon you will be able to walk. That would be the same as hearing, it’s a process and a journey."

Her wedding is booked for next September.

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