Joanne Milne, Deaf For 40 Years, Hears For The First Time! [Video]

Joanne Milne is 40 years old and has been deaf since birth. The lady from Gatesburg, UK is central to a recent video that has gone viral. In the video, Joanne is shown “hearing” for the first time ever in her life. Uploaded by Joanne’s friend to YouTube just two days ago, the video is fast notching up viewers each passing minute.

Joanne suffers from a condition known as Usher’s Syndrome which causes people to lose vision and hearing. By the time she was 20 years old, the condition also claimed Joanne’s vision, reports the Daily Mail. However, last month Joanne underwent a surgery for cochlear implants that would let her listen to sounds. This video was captured the moment the implant was powered on after a 4 week long wait.

The video shows Joanne who is hardly able to keep her emotions under check when she hears her doctor recite the days of the week and talks to her. “Very, very strange”, Joanne said after listening to her own voice for the first time. She goes on, “Wow, it is absolutely amazing” she exclaims at one point of time. The doctor in the meantime tells Joanne how life changing a day it is for Milne. “It is such a huge thing you have just achieved, you should be really proud of yourself,” she tells Joanne. Towards the video, Joanne is still unable to control her feelings and breaks down as the doctor holds her hand. Trying to continue with the switch-on process, she tells Joanne the months of the year. Joanne later revealed how the switch-on process after her cochlear implant was ‘most emotional and overwhelming experience’ of her life.

Joanne says,

“I’m still in shock now. I have to learn to recognize what these sounds are as I build a sound library in my brain. Hearing things for the first time is so emotional from the ping of a light switch to running water. I can’t stop crying and I can already foresee how it’s going to be life changing”

According to Joanne, while she had accepted her deafness and her identity as a deaf person, It was after she became registered blind at the age of 20 that her deafness became increasingly difficult for her.

Joanne’s friend Tremayne Crossley was the person who captured this emotional moment on camera. This video might just remind you of two other similar stories The Inquistr had reported last year where we reported about a mom hearing her son’s voice for the first time and a boy who hears his father for the first time.

Did Joanne Milne’s video make you cry?

[Images Via Bing and YouTube]