Topic: Personal Reflections on Hearing Aids and Hearing LossBeck:
Mr. Crosby, it's a pleasure to meet with you again. At last year's
Starkey Hearing Foundation Gala, you brought the house down quite a few
times, and I am still stealing some of your lines from that event.
Thanks for your time today!
Crosby: Thanks Dr. Beck. Nice
to see you again and it's a pleasure to host the Starkey Hearing
Foundation Gala, it's an honor to work with Tani and Bill Austin. They
do so many wonderful things for hearing impaired children around the
world. It really is special to be here again.
Beck: Would you briefly review the origin of your hearing loss, and your experience with hearing aids?
Crosby:
As you probably recall doctor, my hearing loss was essentially due to
noise exposure during my military service. I was on an anti-submarine
sub-chaser in WWII, and we had lots of depth charges going off all
around us. There were plenty of explosions, and they were loud! I guess
I was just more susceptible to hearing loss than some of the other
guys, but the hearing loss came on slowly starting at that time, and it
just got worse and worse.
Beck: You mentioned that you
may have been more susceptible to hearing loss than others, and that's
certainly an issue. In fact, we can have two people with the exact same
noise exposure over a period of time, and one of them may demonstrate
terrific hearing loss, and the other may have no ill effect at all. So
you're right, genetics and individual susceptibility is an issue, along
with the loudness of the sound, duration of the exposure and other
factors too. But please, go on.
Crosby: When my time was up, I was discharged, and it