“At 5 months old, it became clear that my daughter Azaryah was not responding to sound and noise the way she had earlier. Our doctor referred us to one hearing center, which then referred us to Nemours.
Testing at Nemours gave a diagnosis of progressive hearing loss, with severe hearing loss in her right ear and profound loss in her left. For insurance reasons, we had to go through a trial period with hearing aids, which did not work well at all.
At 22 months, she got her first cochlear implant – but only for one ear, again due to insurance reasons. It took years of back-and-forth, with Nemours as our constant advocate, before Azaryah got her second implant at 9 years old.
With speech and language therapy, she is now a normal 11-year-old that does everything. She is a Girl Scout, does baton, was voted queen of her school and is very involved in the arts.
She has been to every Nemours cochlear implant summer program since they started. We both love the way the camps have grown and the direction they are going. I was told that this year Azaryah functioned like a ‘counselor' and role model to the younger kids. Nemours has been a champion for my daughter. I could not have asked for a better team or for her to be in a better place.”
— Arzra, Azaryah’s mom, Jacksonville, FL