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As printed in Hearing Health, volume 20:4,
Winter 2004
By Paige Sheehan
Ask Pamela Jackson to describe her pet peeves and you’ll
hear about mustaches, people who mumble and oxygen masks.
Why are they such a bother? Because Pamela is hard of
hearing. She’s also a paramedic with Mecklenburg
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Agency in Charlotte,
North Carolina. She relies on two completely-in-the-canal
hearing aids to treat her high-frequency sensorineural
hearing loss and a special stethoscope and speech reading
to assist her in interacting with patients and co-workers.
Pamela began work as a paramedic in August 2000. In
early 2002, she realized she was losing her hearing.
Doctors ran batteries of tests even suspecting a brain
tumor before finally diagnosing her with Meniere’s
disease, more than a full year later. It was a drawn-out
process of discovery that took its toll on her personally.
“Emotionally, I was distraught in the beginning
because I feared the unknown. I went to several specialists,
all of whom could not determine a diagnosis nor tell
me how to stop the hearing loss during it’s progressive
state. Being in the medical field where we expect to
find answers, I found this issue to be the hardest to
accept,” Pamela recalls.
The intervention she was prescribed brought its own
share of anxiety. “After it was determined that
I needed hearing aids, I dwelled on the thought of not
being able to continue in my line of work. Now I know
what those unsubstantiated thoughts are called - fear,”
said Pamela.
Meniere’s disease, a condition of the inner
ear that affects hearing and balance, is characterized
by attacks that may include tinnitus, hearing loss and
vertigo – an intense feeling of spinning and dizziness.
Vertigo is often accompanied by nausea and vomiting
and can last from several minutes to several hours.
While Pamela adjusted to life with Meniere’s,
she also learned that her aided hearing was good enough
to continue working as a paramedic.
Pamela was fitted with digital hearing aids in August
2002 and heard some sounds for the first time in memory.
With a giggle, Pamela said, “When I drove the
ambulance, I had a bad habit of leaving the blinker
on after turning. It didn’t bother me. I never
heard it, but now I understand why it’s so annoying.”
Pamela gets some help from specialized assistive technology
as well, such as her Starkey ST3 amplified stethoscope
with a built-in hearing aid which can be adjusted to
listen to heart and lungs or surrounding sounds. Another
helpful piece of equipment that all her co-workers have
is a text pager. “All my assigned calls come in
text format across this pager, as well as a toned minitor
pager and through radio dispatch,” Pamela explains.
“As far as understanding radio dispatch, I think
I have the same problems as most of my co-workers. It
really depends on the dispatcher’s ability to
communicate clearly and effectively.” Pamela does
crank the volume on the dispatch radio and if she’s
still unsure of what is being said, usually one repeat
of the transmission will suffice.
In addition to these tools of her trade, Pamela compensates
for her hearing by relying on speech reading and providing
more patient care in the ambulance rather than on scene,
since it is often much quieter in the truck.
“The biggest challenge for me was learning how
to speech read. Not only does it require lip-reading
skills, but it also relies heavily on reading facial
expressions correctly,” says Pamela. “I
taught myself to speech read by watching television
soap operas with the sound turned down because the plots
are straight forward and easy to follow.”
Nonetheless, those mustaches as well as foreign patients
with heavy accents and children pose special problems.
“For these patients, I rely heavily on translators,
parents or my partner,” says Pamela.
Most of Pamela’s co-workers treat her with the
same respect as any other professional. However, there
are always those who belittle one’s abilities.
Pamela says she has learned to ignore these people whose
attitudes reflect more on their personality than on
her abilities. “I can perform my job as well as,
if not better, than some of my co-workers. Being hard
of hearing has taught me to be a better listener, therefore
a more compassionate caregiver,” Pamela says confidently.
Though Pamela has faired well in her chosen career,
adjusting to hearing loss was not without its emotional
costs. After going through stages of denial and anger
about her hearing loss, she has come to accept it as
a gain in her life. “Thanks to Self Help for Hard
of Hearing People (SHHH) and publications like Hearing
Health, I became educated and more confident both personally
and professionally. I feel that I have been blessed
in so many ways as a result of the hearing loss. I discovered
that we are a special group of people who have something
extraordinary that hearing people can't appreciate.
Also, I have met so many wonderful people that I might
not otherwise have met,” Pamela reflects.
Pamela has become a strong advocate for people with
hearing loss, recently having been named to North Carolina’s
state SHHH board. Not only does the group help educate
people with hearing loss, its members are working to
change the way society views the condition.
As part of her advocacy work with SHHH, Pamela is promoting
legislation that would require private insurance companies
to cover the cost of hearing aids. “We have to
do something to change the culture,” says Pamela.
“Insurance companies buy eyeglasses, why not hearing
aids?” Pamela believes one of the main reasons
people don’t seek treatment for hearing loss is
because most private insurance companies do not cover
the significant expense. As a result, people with hearing
loss remain in a silent world, often unnecessarily.
Though the legislation may be years away, Pamela is
undaunted. “I love the work I’m doing with
SHHH,” she says. “I’ve met some of
the most remarkable people, and I can lend my voice
to something very important.” n
Paige Sheehan is the public relations
manager at Mecklenburg EMS Agency in Charlotte, N.C.
She also oversees a comprehensive injury prevention
community education program. Prior to joining Medic
in 2000, Sheehan worked in public relations at an academic
medical center and as a television news producer.
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