In 1983, shortly before her third birthday, Kristen Corey received the single-channel implant as part of the ongoing clinical trial at HEI, with William House, M.D., and William Luxford, M.D., as her surgeons and treating physicians in the then new Children’s Auditory Research and Evaluation (CARE) Center of the House Ear Institute.

Kristen’s hearing loss occurred as a result of spinal meningitis, just as she was beginning to learn language and enjoy music. She began working with a speech pathologist at the onset of her hearing loss and with hard work she received good results with the cochlear implant. Kristen was enrolled in a Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) program and gradually was “mainstreamed” into regular classes by the time she reached junior high school. In 2003, she received the multi-channel cochlear implant in her other ear.

"I don’t actually recall how I felt at first hearing sound again. My parents tell me I was excited, and continued to be the happy child that I was. Music was, and continues to be, my biggest pleasure and I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy it if it weren’t for the cochlear implant (CI). I was one of the first pediatric patients at the Institute’s CARE Center, and I worked steadily with the pediatric audiologists and speech pathologists there.

When I first entered school with my cochlear implant there were some social challenges. Children were very curious about it, and I was often teased on the playground. I figure everyone gets teased for one reason or another when they are growing up. Sometimes for comic effect I’d pretend to be a “biorobotic” girl. I didn’t notice a lot of negativity against the cochlear implant itself – more about the fact that I was deaf.

Nonetheless, I was an exceptional student and it showed in my grades. I attended the University of California at Santa Barbara for my bachelor’s degree in socio-cultural anthropology and used the special services they offered on campus, like realtime captioning and sign language interpreters, to maximize my learning experience. I’m currently working as an accounts payable specialist and teach American Sign Language at a community college twice a week.

One of the things I’ve learned to accept is that I’m not fully hearing or fully deaf – I don’t fall neatly into either category, so I do face some ignorance and prejudice from people in both the deaf and the hearing worlds. I’m glad my parents decided on the cochlear implant for me because it has allowed me to enjoy music. I must admit that sometimes I leave the accessories for my cochlear implant off just to enjoy the silence (for me, this is one of the few benefits of being deaf). If I had it to do all over again, I would probably not change a thing. Over all, I believe I’ve fared very well."