Season 2, Episode 2 Amplified Podcast

Esteban is born. Maria begins the cochlear implant evaluation again, but it goes differently than expected. Guest Dr. Nancy Young discusses how she became a pediatric otolaryngologist who specializes in cochlear implants and her impressive career as a pioneer for pediatric cochlear implantation.


Episode Transcript
Katie Colella [00:00:00] You're listening to Amplified, presented by Lurie Children's. Transcripts of this and all episodes can be found at LurieChildren.org/amplified. Last episode, Maria Venalonzo, shared her emotional journey about her son Eduardo, being diagnosed with hearing loss and receiving his cochlear implant. As we know from Katie's story in season one, getting hearing technology is never the end game.
Katie Farnsworth [00:00:26] Many families want to know the etiology or cause of their child's hearing loss. Often, the etiology does not change the course of intervention. But parents want to know the "why." Sometimes, take myself, for example. I don't know what caused my hearing loss. Due to my later identification in life, I don't even know when it happened. When Maria became pregnant shortly after Eduardo received his first cochlear implant, she decided to search for answers.
Maria Venalonzo [00:00:51] So when I get pregnant from my second time, I was like, I was worried. I was like, so stressed out about about like having another kid with hearing loss. And then I met my husband in Chicago. I didn't know about the whole, his whole history. So, I noticed that he was having some hearing loss, but it wasn't that bad. And then he didn't share anything with me. So I wasn't like, I feel like, "Oh, what's going on?" So at the time when I get pregnant and I start worry about it is when I start like pulling up and asking questions in his family. So his mother told me, "Oh, my kids, they also have this same hearing loss, but they get better." And then I was like, "How that's gonna be possible?" So I questioned those things and they said, in there, it gets better is it gets worse. And I was like, "Oh. So I was like, okay." So when I got pregnant, they said they'd review me because I had to mention to my doctor about my concerns. And then so she revealed the right way to do this specially. But I find out something really weird that is not this, that you find out that your kids have hearing loss when you're during your pregnancy. So I was like, "Why do I waste all my time for these one? I were like, so stressing on myself? And they, like, worry about it. And then I didn't know nothing. There's nothing that I have to fix." So I like, ugh. So I let it go.
Katie Farnsworth [00:02:37] According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention or CDC, 50 to 60% of babies born with hearing loss involves genetics. If a family chooses, they can undergo genetic testing panels to determine the likelihood of having another child with hearing loss. But like Maria learned, they cannot diagnose hearing loss prenatally. The only way a hearing loss can be diagnosed is after a baby is born, by a licensed audiologist.
Maria Venalonzo [00:03:02] I don't know for some reason, but this is my experience. It happened to me. When I got a birth my, my, my, my boy. The only way that I find out is like your pregnancy, you had this history. It was even runs in the family. Because that's the only way that I find out. Like hearing loss runs in the in the family. They they have to find out.
Katie Colella [00:03:28] In your husband's family.
Maria Venalonzo [00:03:29] Yes, in my husband's family. They had to find out if it runs in the male or female. And I was like, Oh. So it was like in male, let's say. So it was, I had to find out if I was having a boy or girl. I had to find out the gender. So I was like, okay, what's the difference in the differences, is if there's a boy in the front, in the, in the males. The hearing loss runs in the males. The probably my son is going to going to have a hearing loss is high and then he was a girl,