“NHS saved me from living in a silent world” | Latest news

A man who can hear again thanks to a cochlear implant has praised the NHS for saving him from living in a silent world.

Ian Milner realised his hearing was an issue at 17,  when his dream to join the RAF was dashed after he failed the hearing test. He wore hearing aids until his mid-30s but they just amplified sound rather than making it clearer, and in his 40s his hearing deteriorated rapidly.

Ian, 55, was referred for a cochlear implant when he was 45. It was only when his daughter Kimberley left home to travel that he realised how lonely he’d become and how his social life had deteriorated.

He had tests and was discovered to have significant bilateral hearing loss.

“I realised that I needed to make a change and an implant seemed the logical choice,” says Ian.

“The cochlear implant has given me a new lease of life – the improvements have been mindblowing! And I want to let everyone know how fantastic it is.” 

The implant took place at Queen’s Medical Centre and the device was switched on a month later at Ropewalk House, a nationally recognised centre for auditory implantation.

“You don’t suddenly start hearing voices,” says Ian. “It takes a while.”

“Having a cochlear implant is not like having a new hearing aid,” said Ellen Jeffs, of the Nottingham Auditory Implant Programme. “The implant bypasses the damaged parts of the hearing system and uses electrical impulses to stimulate the hearing nerves directly. The brain has to learn to listen with this new signal, so at switch-on the sound can be very odd. Patients may experience a sensation rather than a sound to start with, or lots of beeping, or a robotic sound.”

“It’s a long journey,” says Ian. “I’ve got to retrain my ears; it was horrendous when I first had it done, everyone sounded like a robot!”

It typically takes weeks to months to adapt to this new signal, with support from the audiologists and therapists. A cochlear implant will work differently for different people, depending on their hearing history. For some the implant gives them a greater awareness of environmental sound and helps lip-reading or visual communication; for others it may allow them to follow conversation in a quiet space without lip-reading, or allow them to talk on the telephone.

“It’s baby steps,” says Ian. “I’m still in rehabilitation. I listen to audio books, music, and some special rehabilitation apps on my phone. But I feel great.”

Ian lives in Rotherham and is able to have some implant monitoring done at home, via tests sent to his mobile phone. Chatting with people with familiar voices is also helpful for Iain; hearing Kimberley’s voice is special and uplifting.

He is a finance officer at Social Work England, and can’t praise his employers enough. “The support they have given me from day one has been amazing. I sit on the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) committee and I’ve learned so much from the other networks and other marginalised people.”

Living with deafness was a struggle, says Ian. “I suffered bullying and abuse throughout my life. Deafness is one disability that people still think it is ok to take the mickey out of.”

With self-depreciating humour, he recalls being locked in a department store because he didn’t hear the ‘we’re closing’ announcement and being unaware that his car alarm went off if the headlights were left on – “how many times has that happened?!”.

Ian has no explanation for his hearing loss. “When I was a toddler I didn’t speak – my twin sister spoke for me and the GP just said that’s normal for twins. I had glue ear in the 1960s, but I don’t know if that had anything to do with it.

“I’d always had a love of music, from singing to playing guitar, and I was in a cover band called Metal Lickers. My tastes moved to heavy metal in the 1990s/2000s, I think, because the low bass sounds were what my ears could pick up. I’ve never been able to hear lyrics, unless I see them as they are sung. Eventually, as my hearing deteriorated, I stopped enjoying music and playing the guitar.

“Fast forward to now and I’ve joined a choir! It’s Rotherham Tuneless Choir and it is for people who don’t care who they sound, they just get enjoyment from singing. I find it amazing that after losing my hearing, I can not only join a choir but sing my heart out!”

Ian adds: “I’ve got my social life back – I’ve got really good friends who treat me like family and now I can have proper conversations with them. I was chatting to them and realised I’d not said ‘what? what?’ for ages – it really hit home.

“I am so honoured and humbled to have this implant,” says Ian. “I owe everything to the audiologist who referred me for this. The NHS has saved me from living in a silent world.”