Watch a 40-year-old Deaf Woman Hear for the First Time
Jo Milne has been deaf since birth due to Usher syndrome, a rare and incurable genetic disorder that can cause hearing loss and visual impairment. Now, at age 40, her new cochlear implants are allowing her to hear for the first time.
Milne, from Gateshead, U.K., was actually fitted with the implants in February, and had to wait more than a month for the emotional moment when they could finally be switched on.
"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," Milne told The Journal.
Milne is also able to listen to music for the first time. Her friend Tremayne Crossley, who posted this video to YouTube, put together an "Introduction to Music" playlist—including Prince, Bruce Springsteen, The Smiths, and Nirvana—which was played out for Milne on BBC6 Music earlier this week.
The first song she heard? John Lennon's "Imagine."
