FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Local Specialist Aids Hearing of Gallatin Mom
When Janice Cawthron made an appointment to replace her 10-year-old hearing aid, she wasn't sure she could afford even the most basic equipment. The single mother, who lost her hearing at the age of five, was about to quit her low paying job because of a medical disability and taking on any more bills would have added another complication to her already stressful life.
“When I made the appointment I really wasn't expecting nothing,” Cawthron, 34, said. “I wasn't even sure that once I got there I was going to be able to get my old hearing aid fixed, and I definitely didn't think I could afford to get a new one.”
But once Walter Stasiuk, an audioprosthologist and owner of Tennessee Hearing Instrument Specialists, saw the condition of Cawthron's hearing aid and heard the deaf woman's story, he suggested she fill out paperwork to apply for assistance from the Starkey Hearing Foundation. The foundation, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is known for giving hearing instruments to deserving individuals, and promoting education and awareness of hearing impairment all over the world. Every year the foundation provides over 20,000 hearing aids in the U.S. and abroad. Stasiuk volunteers with the foundation and has on a number of occasions traveled to the Ukraine as a member of “hear corps” - one of Starkey's hearing care teams.
“Whether it's here at home working with people like Janice, or in the Ukraine helping thousands of hearing impaired children, nothing makes me feel better than when I'm able to use my life's work for good,” Stasiuk said. “Some people might think the job of an audioprosthologist is a dull one, but it gets pretty darned exciting when you watch someone's face the first time they hear sounds they've never heard.”
Not only was Stasiuk able to use his Starkey Hearing Foundation connections to arrange for his patient to receive hearing aids, in less than a week he was able to fit Cawthron with state-of-the art digital instruments valued at several thousands of dollars.
“I had been living on one hearing aid in just one ear for 10 or fifteen years,” Cawthron said. “When I got hearing aids for both ears it opened up a whole new world to me.”
“For the first time in my life I can hear crickets chirping and sounds from the distance. I can finally hear the phone ring and I don't have to blast the volume on my TV anymore,” she said.
Stasiuk, no stranger to understanding challenges that face the deaf and hearing impaired, was motivated to go the extra mile when casual conversation led to revealing facts about hard times Cawthron had faced and was about to face again.
“Janice's life has not been an easy one,” Stasiuk said. “She was 5-years-old before she was correctly diagnosed with nerve damage and until then not only couldn't she hear well, but she was forced to crawl because her balance was so bad.”
“And to top it all off,” Stasiuk said, “ a year ago she was diagnosed with multiple seizure disorder. So if anybody deserves to get a break, it's Janice.”
Cawthron, who said she's always up for a challenge, admitted that on most days she never knows if it will be a good day or a bad day health wise.
“But it was definitely a good day the day I walked into Tennessee Hearing and met Walter,” she said. “Now I have one less thing to worry about and I can hear everything I've been missing all these years!”
In November 2004, and again in January 2005, The Starkey Hearing Foundation was featured on recent episodes of ABC-TV's Extreme Home Makeover. The first time the program aired, Foundation founder, William F. Austin, presented 14-year old Stefan Vardon with a $50,000 college scholarship. Stefan had written to show producers asking that they remodel his family's home into a safe and communication-friendly environment for his autistic brother and deaf parents. In the follow-up episode, the Starkey Foundation gave Stefan's mother, Judy, her first hearing test in 20 years and found she still had some residual hearing. That discovery led to both Judy and her husband, Larry, being fitted for hearing aids – something the couple never expected to be medically eligible for or financially able to receive.
For more information on the Starkey Foundation, please visit www.sotheworldmayhear.org. For a free hearing test in Middle Tennessee, call Tennessee Hearing Instrument Specialists, 615-851-3901.
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To interview Janice Cawthron or Walter Stasiuk, please contact Ganick Communications at 377-7877
