After a lifetime of silence, a British woman can finally hear.
A video captured the moment 39-year-old Joanne Milne’s cochlear implants were switched on, allowing sounds to flood unchecked into her brain for the very first time.
Tears start falling down the woman’s shocked face as she realizes how much her life is going to change.
“Hearing things for the first time is so, so emotional, from the ping of a light switch to running water. I can’t stop crying,” Milne told The Independent.
Milne was born with Usher syndrome, a condition that left her deaf since birth and blind since her mid-20s. But she was recently fitted with cochlear implants at the University Hospital Birmingham. The electronic device bypasses damaged portions of the ear to directly stimulate the auditory nerve, according to the National Institutes of Health. The sounds that are communicated to the ear aren’t as clear as those that provided by natural hearing. But it helps give a deaf person the ability to understand speech and a sense of the sounds in the environment.
It’s enough for Milne.
“The switch-on was the most emotional and overwhelming experience of my life and I’m still in shock now. The first day everybody sounded robotic and I have to learn to recognise what these sounds are as I build a sound library in my brain,” she told The Journal.
Some of the first words she heard were the nurse reading out the days of the week and the months of the year. Milne became emotional hearing these sounds that many others take for granted.
“I’m so happy. Over the last 48 hours hearing someone laughing behind me, the birds twittering and just being with friends, they didn’t have to tap my arm to get my attention which a massive leap,” she said.
One of the things she’s been looking forward to is listening to music. She gave her friend Tremayne Crossley the enormous task of making her a playlist—an “Introduction to Music.”
“I said it would be an absolute privilege but when I sat down to start I realised how monumentally difficult it would be, and what a responsibility,” Crossley told Stylist.
The friend decided to choose one song for every year of Milne life.
Milne took to Twitter to thank Crossley and her supporters. She hopes her story will raise awareness about Usher syndrome and inspire others to get cochlear implants.
An Introduction To Music, curated by Tremayne Crossley
Ken Boothe – Everything I Own
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band – She’s the One – Live at Hammersmith Odeon
Paul McCartney – Silly Love Songs
Joni Mitchell – Black Crow
Steely Dan – Peg
Electric Light Orchestra – Mr. Blue Sky
Gary Numan – Are ‘friends’ Electric?
The Specials – Do Nothing
Soft Cell – Tainted Love
The Jam – Town Called Malice
Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
Prince – When Doves Cry
Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)
The Smiths – Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
Fleetwood Mac – Big Love – Live (Lindsey Buckingham solo acoustic version)
Tracy Chapman – Fast Car
The The August & September
Deee-Lite – Groove Is In The Heart
Ozric Tentacles – Sploosh!
INXS – Baby Don’t Cry
Nirvana – All Apologies
Richard Thompson – King Of Bohemia
Pulp – Common People – Full Length Version / Album Version
Everything But The Girl – Missing
Foo Fighters – Everlong
Massive Attack – Teardrop
Jimmy Eat World – For Me This Is Heaven
The Avalanches – Frontier Psychiatrist
Daft Punk – Digital Love
The Streets – Turn The Page
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps
Beastie Boys – An Open Letter To NYC
Nine Inch Nails – The Hand That Feeds
Arctic Monkeys – I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
Radiohead – Jigsaw Falling Into Place
Elbow – One Day Like This
Maximo Park – Tanned
Gruff Rhys – Shark Ridden Waters
The Joy Formidable – Whirring
Bat For Lashes – Laura
Haim – Don’t Save Me
