For people who tune into the hit television series ER, it will come as no surprise that Emergency Room physicians need to hear and react quickly and accurately to nurses, medical technicians and other doctors when caring for sometimes critically ill patients.
Dr. Stanley Lobitz, a 47-year-old physician in private practice who also works part-time in a busy hospital Emergency Room, worried that a gradual hearing loss would cause him to miss important communication with staff and patients.
“In the emergency room, clear, concise communication is critical.” Dr. Lobitz explains. “When activity would heat up and I had to call out with time for medication or a physician update with a patient, I was always nervous that I was missing important information.”
Dr. Lobitz admits that he was “sloppy” with hearing protection around loud noises. “I had started wood working and I like loud concerts,” he notes. “But I procrastinated forever in treating my hearing loss until I was obviously hampered at work.” He was pleased with his first pair of hearing instruments but had difficulty adjusting to the in-the-canal models he selected. Eventually he switched to behind-the-ear hearing devices. He found that he couldn’t function as a doctor with two hearing instruments in place because they interfered with this stethoscope. Eventually, he began wearing one hearing device and using a high-end amplified stethoscope. “Needless to say, I had less than optimal acoustics with the stethoscope. I just couldn’t get good sound quality – because I usually wore just my left hearing instrument while I was working, it was like I was using just one ear.”
His “Ah-Ha!” moment occurred when his audiologist, recently returned from a professional conference in Denmark, introduced him to the new Oticon DELTA. “My audiologist, who had my recent audiogram and knew my specific hearing needs, sent his assistant over to my office with an already programmed DELTA for my right ear for me to ‘try’,” he said. “The hearing device was so new, my audiologist was able to bring only one back from his conference. I tried not to look disappointed because I only used my left hearing aid at work. But from the second his assistant put it on my ear, there was no way I was going to let her take it back! Now I wear two DELTAs all the time.”
Dr. Lobitz reports that the sound quality he experiences with DELTA is dramatically better than what he could achieve with his previous hearing devices. “They’re extremely comfortable and the sound quality is fabulous. I don’t even have to use my amplified stethoscope any more. My stethoscope can easily fit my ears right along with my DELTAs.”
“I used to joke with my audiologist that he could hang a toaster off the side of my head if it would give me good sound quality,” he adds. “My new hearing instruments have improved my lifestyle markedly and they’re so unobtrusive that people don’t even know I’m wearing them.”
Dr. Lobitz encounters a number of people in his family practice who are reluctant to consider hearing solutions. “I’m fairly open with them about my hearing loss,” Dr. Lobitz explains. “They get up really close, stare at me and still can’t believe I’m wearing hearing devices.”
His new hearing devices have gotten him back into conversations he was missing. “I hear much better in crowds and in restaurants. My friends notice that I’m less detached during group conversations. Before if they wanted to include me in the conversation, they’d have to ‘aim’ at me and even then, I was missing parts of what was being said. I like the natural sound quality I have now. My DELTAs help me in the frequencies when I need help but let other natural sounds come in.”
Another advantage Dr. Lobitz noticed with his new DELTAs occurred on a recent amusement park trip with his daughter. “Before, when I was active and being jostled around, I was never quite sure my hearing instruments wouldn’t fall out. My DELTAs were very secure – even some of the wild rides by daughter managed to get me on!”
“I have a friend who is a family doctor and after I got my new hearing instruments, he asked it he could borrow my amplified stethoscope because he was having trouble hearing with his hearing devices on. I told him that before he spent money on a new high-end stethoscope he should try DELTAs. The next day, he went to his audiologist, left the office with them on and has been delighted with how well they are working for him.”
Dr. Lobitz notes that it took him some time to get used to his first pair of hearing instruments. ”The DELTAs have been much better right out of the gate. There has been next to nothing that bothered me about them. The sound quality is more open and natural and that was very easy to get used to. They changed my life. I encourage everyone whose hearing loss is affecting their quality of life to see their audiologist and give them a try.”
Stanley Lobitz, MD
Family Practice & Emergency Medicine
Kingston, Pennsylvania
24 Years Practicing Medicine
Reprinted from www.oticonusa.com.