Darla and Buster
Pretty much weekly, a patient contacts our office with the report of a lost or damaged hearing aid. The stories range from the mundane to the miraculous. Common among the reports are that the device was lost in the sheets during a hospital stay. Almost equally common is “the dog ate my hearing aid”. We have personal experience with this one since Buster, one of our two office dogs, has enjoyed three of our stock devices…..three, so far 🙂
In an effort not to single out only canine culprits, we have heard stories of cats and even a pot-bellied pig enjoying their owner’s hearing aids. Speaking of munching, the similarity between an ‘In The Canal’ hearing aid and a cashew cannot be overstated!
One of my favorite stories of hearing aid loss comes from my father-in-law’s days of dispensing in rural Ohio. He received the following handwritten letter in the mailbox:
“Dear Mr. Diles,
While I was out milking Betsy, her tail swished my hearing aid into the bucket of milk and I haven’t heard a thing since.
Hoping to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Elmer Jones”
For the miraculous, a patient told my father-in-law the following tale:
“I was out on my tractor and drove under a tree. The branches brushed my head and I lost my hearing aid.”
He was fitted with a new device that fall, again in rural Ohio. In the spring of the following year, this same farmer was out on his tractor plowing the same field. He looked up and there was his hearing aid, hanging from one of the branches that had grabbed it months before. He fetched it, loaded up a fresh battery and it was alive and well! After months of cold, ice, snow and rain his device still sounded great. Maybe RadioEar was the first to nano-coat :)?
When hearing aids are lost or damaged, patients can understandably get pretty upset. Next week I’ll discuss what we do in our offices to make sure people do not go without hearing, no matter what style of hearing aid they wear.
Dogs are actually attracted to hearing aids in two ways:
1) If they are left switched on, the high pitch squeal (feedback) will make them curious;
2) The scent from the skin oils & cerumen attracts them as well.
Keeping the aids (& CI processors) in a Dry & Stor while not in use is A Good Idea.
Ask your father-in-law if he had any patients who tried to use 3-in-1 oil on their aids to stop them from squealing. Yes, that caution against not lubricating hearing aids used to be in the instruction books!
Those are great stories! I think most of us have some really interesting tales. My favorite is a patient whose hearing aid fell into their bowl of corn flakes as they leaned over their breakfast. They scooped it up and took a bite!
As I understand it, that’s where the “Store” part of Dry & Store® came from.
Dr. Dan Schumaier saw so many pet-chewed hearing aids from his own patients that when he picked a name for his invention, he wanted to emphasize the need to store devices overnight beyond the reach of pet jaws or paws. We wrote a blog entry about it called “Harley loves hearing aids”
https://www.dryandstoreblog.com/2010/12/01/harley-loves-hearing-aids/