Friends thought I was a snob: Man with single-sided deafness

SINGAPORE - For more than 30 years, the label of a snob stuck with him.

Retiree Arthur Seah, 65, would walk right past his friends in clubhouses, oblivious to them calling out to him.

This is just one of the type of embarrassing situations which Mr Seah has had to deal with as he used to suffer from single-sided deafness, he told The New Paper.

But things changed for him when he got a cochlear implant in January, as part of a clinical trial at the Changi General Hospital.

While Mr Seah does not know what caused his hearing to deteriorate, he guessed that it was due to his army days. As an army regular, he was frequently exposed to deafening noises at live firing sessions.

"We weren't wearing mufflers or ear plugs. I suppose it wasn't part of the SOP (standard operating procedure) yet back in the 1960s," he said.

After each live firing session, his colleagues would complain of a ringing in their ears, while Mr Seah did not hear any.

Instead, Mr Seah, then in his early 20s, found it increasingly straining to listen with his left ear.

Over the years, his hearing deteriorated but he did not think too much of it.

Vertigo

It was only when he experienced vertigo during his overseas training while on a military aircraft that he sought medical attention.

"I was down for three days. The doctor diagnosed me with hearing distortion, which means my inner ear was damaged," Mr Seah said.

Then in his mid-30s, Mr Seah was told he had lost the ability to hear entirely in his left ear. "I was told none of the hearing aids could help," he said. Mr Seah was mindful not to let his loss of hearing affect him psychologically.

Learnt to adapt

Learnt to adapt

"I didn't get depressed. I just learnt to adapt. I thought, 'This is life, live with it,'" he said. He continued working, but started running into many misunderstandings at work.

"What made things worse was that I wasn't very good at lip reading," he said. He subsequently retired in 1997. TINNITUS At night, Mr Seah was unable to sleep due to his tinnitus, which resulted in a constant ringing sound in his left ear. It took him six months before he eventually adapted to his condition.

Even then, social situations became increasingly challenging for Mr Seah. "It gets quite tiring with only one good ear when I meet my friends at gatherings. "My friends often ask me why I keep frowning, but I am actually trying to concentrate.

"I have to figure out who is talking, and where the sound is coming from," he said.

Mr Seah added that he used to leave wedding dinners feeling apologetic. "I would not talk to the person sitting on the left. Otherwise, I would have to turn my whole body to hear him," he said. With a cochlear implant, Mr Seah, a divorcee, is no longer caught in embarrassing social situations.

He decided to get the implant as he did not want to get to "the point of no return" - when he becomes completely deaf.

"The most wonderful part is that if I close my good ear, I can feel the sound through my left ear," he said. But Mr Seah acknowledged that he is still in the process of relearning sounds.

"When someone claps, it sounds like someone is walking with clogs in my left ear. The sound is amplified. "I am still in the process of adjusting, but at least my friends said I don't frown when they talk any more," he said.

About cochlear implants

About cochlear implants

Mr Seah received a cochlear implant as part of a Changi General Hospital (CGH) study that started in August last year.

"The trial is essentially looking at the outcome and effectiveness of using cochlear implants for restoring hearing in patients with single-sided deafness," said Dr Yuen Heng Wai, a ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist at CGH.

A cochlear implant restores hearing to the deafened side by sending electrical signals to the brain.

They were previously approved for use only in people with hearing loss in both ears.

Another way to restore hearing is through the bone conduction implant, which creates sound waves by vibrating the skull, Dr Yuen said. Adding that Europe has started conducting cochlear implant trials three years ago, the ENT specialist said: "The preliminary result is promising."

Everyone can use this implant, unless the cochlear is poorly formed or the hearing nerves are damaged.

A cochlear implant is subsidised by the Government only when it is used in people with hearing loss in both ears.

A Ministry of Health spokesman said this was due to a lack of clinical evidence of its effectiveness in people with one-sided hearing loss. More information on hearing loss and subsidies will be shared by audiologists and specialists during a forum on Sept 27 at the CGH Training Centre.

It costs $5 for the two-hour session from 9am.

Those who are interested can register via e-mail at public_forum@cgh.com.sg, or by dialling 6850 2737

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