Mr Greenley’s time in the Navy:
Mr Greenley was in the Navy for 24 years. Initial training involved firing weapons on the range with poor hearing protection. After training, his role was as a rifleman. He had blank firing exercises in tunnels and buildings and thunderflashes when training in house clearing. Most exercises were in closed environments and so often he came out with his ears ringing and partial deafness. On board ships he was in and around big guns when firing, he also spent time on landing craft and around helicopters. In his later career he was a Heavy Weapons Air Defence instructor and would sometimes fire up to 10 missiles at a time. Mr Greenley would also wear a headset with constant noise and static coming through and took part in lots of radio work setting a command post. Only one ear would be protected due to him needing to keep the other ear free to give instructions to others.
Every day life for Mr Greenley:
Mr Greenley struggles watching the television or listening to the radio, due to his hearing loss. He only occasionally goes out socializing but struggles when in a group of 4 or more. Mr Greenley has difficulty hearing female voices. Steve does have NHS hearing aids however they do not give him the level of hearing he requires and simply does not get on with these.
On assessment:
Mr Greenley’s audiogram shows a normal-moderate symmetrical and sloping sensorineural hearing loss.This type of hearing loss is typically associated with difficulty in complex listening environments in which there are competing background noises. Softly spoken speakers and conversations over a distance will be difficult for a person with this hearing loss, especially if they are unable to see the speakers face. It is often the case that people with this kind of hearing loss start to avoid complex listening environments which int turn can lead to social isolation and a decreased quality of life. The preferred volume of the television or radio for a person with this type of loss is too loud for normal hearing individuals.
Recommendation:
Mr Greenley was referred to Mr Richard Bunce who covers in Cornwall, on assessment he is was recommended the GN Resound 961 rechargeable hearing aids. This system will provide a clear and rich sound when fitted with a fairly open delivery. The open delivery will preserve the use of Mr Greenleys fair low frequency hearing whilst providing the all important amplification to hear the speech sounds he currently has less access to. This will benefit him hugely when watching television or listening to radio as he will be able to hear the clarity of the speech. The Quattro 9s have many features to aid better speech intelligibility in noisy environments, including Binaural Directionality III which will allow Mr Greenley to easily listen to what is directly in front of him whilst keeping him aware of environmental sounds around him, therefore supporting a very natural hearing experience. The noise tracker removes unwanted noise for better understanding of speech. The Spatial Sense feature, on top of the appropriate amplification on his differing sides, will help with the localisation of sound.
Going forward:
The UK Veterans Hearing Foundation along with Richard Bunce will continue to support Mr Greenly going forward. We wish him all the very best in hearing well again!
