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Hearing Aids Connect Him to the World

Even for younger patients, hearing loss may be profound. Fortunately, an attentive and persistent hearing instrument specialist can provide the solution.

Daniel Johnston may have a severe hearing loss, but it certainly doesn’t seem to slow him down.

“I’m an entertainer,” he says. “I was a professional surfer, I do some modeling and acting, and I’m interning at a gym to be a personal trainer.

“My main thing right now, though, is music. It’s hard for a lot of people to believe because of my hearing loss, but I play acoustic guitar; I’m able to feel the vibration through the instrument. I guess I just wanted to play the instrument so badly that I would practice all day until I learned. My band and I recently recorded a CD and signed a contract with MTV for their Teen Wolf series.

“I’ve been going to hearing aid specialists for as long as I can remember,” he explains. “I had a very expensive pair of hearing aids, but it doesn’t matter how high-tech hearing aids are if they don’t work. The specialist in Manhattan didn’t seem to have the time or the patience to make them work the way that I needed them to work.”

In fact, Daniel felt frustrated over the years with all of his hearing care providers, feeling that they were just plain inattentive to his needs.

“Throughout the years, with these specialists, I felt as though I was being treated more like a customer than a patient. If they ran into a wall, they would just kind of push me to the door and say, That’s how it is .”

Back in 2002, Daniel was living in New York City, pursuing his entertainment career. While on vacation, he came back to Florida to visit his family and had to address a problem with his hearing aids. Daniel had a great stroke of good fortune when he found his way to Dan Taylor, ACA, BC-HIS, COHC, at A-Advanced Hearing Care.

“It was pure luck,” says Daniel, “but from the moment I met him, my life changed. I would say that he is responsible for the success I have been able to attain in my life.

“More important than the hearing aids themselves, it’s the type of audioprosthologist that he is. The main thing is that he’s hearing impaired himself, and hearing loss is a very unique condition in terms of trying to relate it to someone. If you don’t have the problem yourself, it’s hard to understand what it’s like.”

Providing the right solution

At A-Advanced Hearing Care, the focus is always on patient care first, emphasizes Dan.

“I believe it’s important to never lose sight of the fact that these are patients with hearing problems,” he says. “There is a prosthesis involved, but that’s secondary to the care I deliver. In my practice, I’m patient-centered and results-oriented. I’m not so much concerned how the patient’s hearing loss began; I’m interested in providing solutions.”

As someone who has indeed walked a mile in the shoes of his patients, Dan knows that it’s important to spend considerable time and effort finding the best solutions for each individual who comes into his office. For that reason, he always provides comprehensive and state-of-the-art hearing testing and hearing instrument technology, and that’s just what his patient received, says Dan.

“I fitted Daniel with hearing aids about four years ago, which made a huge difference for him compared to what he had been fit with before,” he says. “He suffers with severe/profound hearing loss, so he was thrilled with his hearing aids.”

More recently, Dan had something even better, and he told his patient about it during their consultation.

“Hearing aids have evolved far beyond what we have thought of them in the past,” he reflects, “and last week I upgraded Daniel from large behind-the-ear instruments to ReSound Alera™s, which are each about the size of a dime. They also have 2.4 GHz radio transceivers built right onto the chips, making them wirelessly connectible to TVs, stereos, Bluetooth® cell phones and computers.

“Daniel is a young man, and his active lifestyle is a good reminder that you don’t have to be a senior citizen to need help with your hearing. He’s a great guy, and I’m pleased to have been able to help him over these past few years.”

“He’s the reason for my hearing”

For Daniel, making that momentous first trip to A-Advanced Hearing Care has given him a trusted hearing care provider as well as a much improved quality of life, from surfing to MTV.

“When I ended up with Dan, he actually fixed the problem with those hearing aids, which I had not purchased from him, and he didn’t charge me a penny,” he reports. “He was able to achieve within a few days what all these other specialists couldn’t, and I hadn’t even purchased the hearing aids from him. That told me that this guy is a different breed.

“He explained my hearing loss to me and actually showed it to me on the instruments he has,” recalls Daniel. “He told me there were better options out there for me, so I got a different set of hearing aids from him.”

He thanks Dan for his compassion as well as his expertise, noting that it’s this combination that has made Dan his number one choice.

“He doesn’t get frustrated, he doesn’t give up, and he has a level of compassion that a lot of people don’t have. I think that comes from his being hearing impaired as well.

“He’s a very special person, and I could not have achieved the amount of success I have right now with someone else. He’s the reason for my hearing.”

FHCN – Michael J. Sahno