- It's a man from Florida
who started losing his hearing in 1995.
Then just recently he had a cochlear implant,
restoring his hearing.
The first words he heard were from his wife
in the doctor's office.
Take a look.
- [Doctor] You can try talking right now.
- Can you hear my voice?
Can you hear it?
Can you hear me?
You're not reading my lips, are you?
- [Doctor] He probably still is
for understanding. - It's kind of echoey,
- [Brian] but I can get it.
Say it again.
- [Erin] I love you. (laughs)
oh my God.
- All right, well we actually have Brian
and his wife Erin on the line right now.
How y'all doing?
- Hi!
- Hello, nice to see y'all.
- And you.
- Brian, take us back to that moment
that you heard your wife's voice.
- Oh, on the day of activation, of course I was,
you know, anxious and I was excited at the same time
that this was about to happen.
And, but I also had reservations as we were driving there
because I was thinking about, you know,
years ago I had had some other procedures done
that were supposed to help my hearing, they didn't work.
So I was thinking about that.
And so when we went there,
we were the first appointment in the morning
and we got in, we sat down,
and they couldn't get the system to boot up.
And so of course, everyone had a mask on,
but my wife had the mask on that I made for her
with the plastic window.
So I was reading her lips.
So she was saying, okay, you know,
there's just something with the system,
they're trying some different things.
So I'm like, okay.
And I'm following her.
And then it just kept going.
And then I was starting to think,
well, maybe it's not gonna work today.
And then all of a sudden I heard a voice
and I heard my wife say, "I love you."
And I couldn't believe it.
And I, you know, the first thing I said was,
"Say that again."
And when she said, "I love you," I said, "I love you, too,"
and I just, I was just overcome with,
it's been like 10 years or so
since I heard her say I love you.
And I was just flooded and I didn't want to move.
If you notice in the video, I didn't want to move.
I was just like,
I don't want this sound to stop.
Years ago when I used to wear hearing aids,
if you turned your head you would lose sound,
and I was just thrilled.
I was thrilled.
- There's so many emotions happening in that moment.
Oh my gosh.
So I mean, to both of you,
you say this has been a long road for you,
you were saying 10 years, right?
So what challenges have you faced?
- Well, I was born with a rare genetic disease
called osteogenesis imperfecta.
And that simply means that my body
doesn't have enough collagen,
collagen gives bones and other tissues tensile strength.
And in my case, my bones,
they break very easily
with little trauma to no trauma at all.
I broke my first bone at six weeks of age
and here I am at 53,
I'm still breaking bones and I'm well over 70 fractures.
It also, as we learned, it also affects your hearing.
And right after I graduated from medical school,
I lost my hearing,
and that prevented me from pursuing my career in that field.
I did choose another profession.
And, but then again, in August 13th, 2008,
I suffered a rare life threatening cerebral hemorrhage
called a spontaneous subdural hematoma
that left me in a coma on life support.
It wasn't...
I wasn't supposed to survive, but fortunately I did.
And you know, those were some of the things
that I have faced with in my life.
- Wow. I mean, I can't imagine going through that.
And then I can't, honestly, Erin,
I can't imagine watching someone go through that.
That's gotta be...
Is that like the most helpless feeling ever?
- It was very helpless.
But you know,
Brian persevered and made it through all of it.
And he's a strong person for that.
- Oh my gosh.
Well, you guys, this was such an inspiring story.
Thank you so much for coming on and sharing.
I know it it can't be easy to talk about.
I know it's an emotional story,
but thank you for being brave enough
to share your story today,
'cause I know there's a lot of people out there
that have also gone through
what you're going through, Brian,
and Erin, you as well.
Having to be, you know, there and watching
and trying to help as much as you can.
It's a beautiful thing.
So thank you for sharing your story with us today,
all right?
- All right. - You're welcome!
Thank you for the opportunity.