The joy of hearing for the holidays

The joyful conversations — heard by all — at Café Merlot on Tuesday afternoon would have never occurred were it not for Dr. David Illich and a contest he started 10 years ago.

Many of his Hear for the Holidays winners and their family members came together Tuesday to celebrate the contest’s 10th anniversary — a contest where one local recipient each year is awarded a top-of-line Oticon hearing aid and lifetime of follow-up office visits with Illich for free.

Illich said he never thought this gathering — a reunion of sorts — would ever occur since when he started the contest in 2005 it was meant to be a one-time thing to thank the community for helping his family members affected by Hurricane Katrina.

“(The contest) was so successful, that I thought I’d just do it one more time,” Illich said about reviving the contest for 2006 and each subsequent year since. It is cosponsored by Illich, Palomar Health and Oticon.

Illich, Palomar Health’s chief audiologist, said he knew there was a need, but did not fully realize the extent and repercussions if people did not receive a hearing aid.

“There are a lot who can afford it and then there are the very low-income, whom the state can get them help,” he said. Then there is that middle group — the ones whose income makes them ineligible for other financial assistance, but do not have enough resources to afford the devices that cost several thousand dollars. That is where many of those who have won the contest fall.

“The contest is based on need, but I didn’t initially realize there are so many who want to work, but are limited due to their hearing loss,” Illich said, adding the last five winners were all on the verge of losing their jobs due to their severe hearing impairment.

“They all now have better paying jobs and many are the breadwinners in their families,” Illich said. Among those that applies to is last year’s winner, Poway resident Shawn Wismont, whom Illich said had to miss the party because of her new — and higher paying — job.

With their restored ability to hear, three of the recipients have gone back to college so they can improve professionally, he added.

Poway resident Devra Willet, the 2007 recipient nominated by her coworkers at Café Merlot, said she was on the verge of losing both of her jobs.

“If I can’t hear, I can’t serve the public,” Willet said. “My kids certainly wouldn’t watch TV with me and I was feeling really alone because (without a hearing aid) I can’t engage in conversation with people.”

She said receiving the hearing aid “just made me live a normal life again. I’m so grateful because I never could have afforded them. When you’re losing your hearing, you don’t realize what it is doing to (you) because you get used to it.”

Rancho Bernardo resident Sandra Moll, the 2010 winner, echoed Willet’s sentiments.

“When I first got (my hearing aid) I said, ‘My God! What quality of life,” Moll recalled. “When you have hearing loss, you don’t think it’s you. (Instead) you blast the TV and say no one speaks clearly or loud enough. It’s not (you), but the other person (at fault).”

Moll said the first time she walked into her classroom she was stunned by what she could hear, such as two students talking across the room. “I could hear what the students were saying to one another — things in a million years I never would have heard.”

Her students and fellow teachers no longer have to scream for her to understand them and now she often finds the television to be too loud, she said.

Willet, who said she is 60 percent deaf in one ear and 75 percent in the other, said she was stunned the first time she walked out her door. She could heard birds singing and a car a block away. “The biggest thing is being able to engage in conversation,” she said. “People don’t like to repeat themselves.”

Willet and Moll said they are very grateful to Illich for holding the annual contest and praised him for his “excellent” care over the years.

“He’s got such a big, generous, loving heart,” Willet said. “He treats people from all walks of life the same.”

Moll called the contest “a wonderful opportunity” and Illich’s “gift to the community.”

“The gift is in the giving,” Illich said. “There is no greater joy than giving back the most important thing in life ... family, financial security and professional development.”

He added, “I don’t consider (the winners) to be my patients. I consider them to be my family. This is a long-term venture where we get to know each and every individual. I am the most blessed man in north San Diego County to be an audiologist at Palomar Health.”