An emergency care assistant from Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) has hailed our audiology teams after he was fitted with a state of the art wireless hearing device which has transformed his life.

Paul Nielsen has an Oticon Ponto 4 bone-anchored device fitted to his head behind his ear which picks up sound and sends vibrations through his skull to his cochlear. Traditional devices rely on sounds transferring down through the ear.

He said:  "It works like a dream."

He explained: "I wanted to join the emergency services when I was younger, though was turned down because of my hearing loss and I couldn’t wear a suitable device to join-up. I’d always been prone to infections wearing normal devices, so I ended up working in a bank for 35 years.

"I was talking to a friend who works with deaf children and she told me about bone anchored hearing devices and I thought it sounded great.

"I was successful in having one fitted around three years ago and it has totally transformed my life, giving me confidence to apply for YAS where I’ve been working as an Emergency Care Assistant for the past 2.5 years."

"The device works like a dream and recently I had an upgraded model* fitted with senior audiologist, Jason Cropper (see below) . It’s an all singing, all dancing model and the sound quality is totally amazing!

"And because the processor works with wireless technology I can answer my phone through it and listen to music too.

"It’s different to a normal hearing device as it’s affixed to the outside of my skull with a press stud .The processor picks up sounds going on around me and filters out background noise and other noises it thinks I don’t need to hear. It then converts the sound and sends vibrations through my skull to my cochlear. Look at it like a road diversion but for my ear!

"It also means I can go about my business as normal and don’t have to ask people to speak up or sit to my right and people really can’t tell I have a hearing loss."

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*These devices aren't suitable for all patients with hearing loss as it relies on patients having a working cochlea to send sound to the brain.

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