As mentioned previously, we've encountered some technical difficulties with a few of the posts. Fortunately, those problems have been resolved. Here's Sharon's account, in her own words, of her day of testing students at the Divine Fellowship Blind School:
As an audiologist from The University of Minnesota, today was incredibly special for me. Today marked the day I finally got to meet the children from the Calcutta Blind School with hearing loss who needed hearing aids. I had been anxiously anticipating meeting these children since Grace first mentioned The Pathways trip to Calcutta one year ago. After an extremely generous donation of twenty hearing aids from GN Resound, a large hearing aid company headquartered in Minneapolis, I was finally ready to begin the hearing aid fitting process with the children. I would be remiss if I did not thank Rodger Bakke from GN Resound who graciously gave us not only the hearing aids, but also all of the software, cables, and tools that are necessary to fit hearing aids. Without Rodger, this day would truly not be possible. Alas, today, not quite knowing what to expect, Lisa, Michelle, and I headed out to Mercy Hospital to meet the children who needed help hearing.
Upon arriving at Mercy Hospital, we met Phillip, the chaplain of the hospital. Phillip works closely with The Calcutta Blind School and he introduced us to the children that needed hearing aids. In order to fit the hearing aids appropriately, a diagnostic hearing evaluation of each child was needed, and Phillip arranged for me to complete all of the testing at The Calcutta Hearing Center. Once we met the children at the hospital, we loaded them into taxis to complete the audiologic evaluations. The children ranged in age from 5 to 18 years-old, and with the exception of one child who could see shadows, all of the children were completely blind. The children clung to us and fully entrusted us to guide them wherever they needed to go. Their trust and patience was truly humbling. Phillip served as our interpreter with the children, who all spoke Bengali, and we were able to complete all the testing we needed.
The degree of hearing loss that I discovered ranged from mild to profound, and some children had no hearing whatsoever. The children with more severe hearing loss needed to have special earmolds made for the hearing aids, and these earmolds were made at the hearing center to be picked up in 3 days. After a very full and productive day, the children were ready to head back to school. I would be seeing the children again on Saturday to fit the children with their hearing aids. Before the fitting day, I will need to program the hearing aids with each child’s individual hearing loss and tailor the hearing aids based on age and other cognitive factors. With all of the hearing test results in hand, we headed back to the hotel to program the hearing aids and prepare for out next visit with the children.
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