Wrong Aid Dispensed !!!!!

Posted on 13/06/2009 09:57:00

I went to see a lovely gentleman with his wife today at home. They had paid £3000 for a hearing system in December 2008 and they wanted my opinion, although they had already reached a decision that it was a lost cause!

On entering their house, they showed me the hearing aids which were fabulous, really tiny placed in the upper ear with a thin tube down the ear canal - fabulous!! However, this was an 82 year old man with huge arthritic hands so he couldn't even hold them! His wife who has severe heart problems was having to place them in his ear and even then he couldn't hear.

His concern was what would happen if his wife passed away who would put them in his ear.

He had been told by the dispenser that the reason he couldn't hear was wax in his ears. On looking into his ears, I found no major wax problem and the hearing test showed a loss of 40dB in the low frequencies dropping to 75dB in the highs which meant that his new hearing system was already running on its maximum potential!! at only 5 months old so what would they do in the future?

He has decided not to go back to the old dispenser which makes me angry because it paints us in a bad light, its thoughtless dispensing at its worst. The client wants independece with his hearing system, he wants to be able to control it himself and have the ability to grow with it as his hearing alters during his lifetime.

We sat and discussed options and decised on Widex Inteo half shells with remote control, with extra back up in visits from me just to make sure he is okay and becomes more confident, as he is pretty low at the moment. This size of aid should be fine with his hands, and the remote control will put his ability to alter them in front of his face - I think he will do fine but I will keep you updated on his progress.