Thankful People: Celebrating the gift of hearing

EDITOR'S NOTE: Thankful People is a group of stories put together every Thanksgiving by the Southeast Missourian that focus on local people who have special reasons to be thankful.

Megan Goncher lives her life as do many 20-somethings; enterprising, active and with a host of friends. Her pretty smile and sparkling eyes help her lead a conversation, and one would expect great things in the future.

It's only when she pulls back her hair that you see what has given her an exponentially better quality of life.

On May 16, 2011, Goncher was the recipient of a cochlear implant in a four-hour surgery performed by Dr. J. Gail Neely at Washington University in St. Louis. A cochlear implant is a small electronic device that works by delivering impulses directly to the auditory nerve, which carries them to the brain to provide the sense of hearing.

Goncher was born with the ability to hear; however, during the pregnancy, her mother contracted Cytomegalovirus, which now is regularly tested for during pregnancy. Megan was 5 years old when her hearing loss was initially detected.

"When I was little, I wouldn't respond," she said. "My equilibrium was off, and I had no balance; until I was about 9, I walked holding onto things."

At age 7, she underwent surgery to fix a hole in her ear drum. At 16, her parents noticed her progressive loss of hearing, and when she was 21 it was significantly worse.

"I saw my audiologist again, and we determined that hearing aids were needed," Goncher said. She continued with those until her implant surgery, but they offered less and less help as things progressed.

"When I was 24, I woke up one day and was completely deaf," she said.

At the time of her surgery at age 26, Goncher was experiencing 4 percent hearing in her right ear, even with a hearing aid.

Her life, up to the surgery, was not easy. Goncher's relationships and friendships suffered, and she found herself physically alone. She could function by reading lips and body language, but she was having trouble keeping a job, and her optimism waned.

"Besides my family, my faith was the only thing I had to lean on during the time from when I went deaf until just last year."

The decision to undergo cochlear implant surgery was difficult for Goncher. She was told that were the surgery unsuccessful, the little bit of hearing she had remaining in her ear would be gone, leaving her completely deaf. There was also the cost -- into six figures -- that weighed heavily on her decision.

"It's a major surgery. It's a major life decision. It's a major investment. It's time consuming. It's exhausting -- for everyone; not just the candidate," Goncher said. "For the family, friends, spousess ... if they have kids, and so on."

Her doctor strongly believed she was an ideal candidate for an implant, and laid it out as her only option if she wanted to hear.

"There were days when it was very hard to have faith," Goncher said. "My aunt said, 'Why would you not take the opportunity to have something that God intended you to have?' And I'd sit there and think, 'Man; she's right.'"

Goncher knows that the voice of God led her to having the surgery.

"I'm going through all these tests and hadn't really made my decision, and my sister went with me to an appointment, and the office was saying, 'Here's all these different speech processors, and they come in these colors …' asking me which one I wanted to have," said Goncher.

"I get this email, and it says, 'Hi, Megan, we've decided to schedule your surgery for May 16th ...' and I was like, 'We who?'" she said. "I had told no one that I was definitely having this done, or at least I don't remember giving the go-ahead."

So, with that email, Goncher resigned that this was what God was telling her to do. She knew there was a shot it might not work, but she put her fears aside and went ahead with the surgery.

One might assume that, like Lasik procedures, it may be a few hours or days before the miracle of the surgery is demonstrated, but with cochlear implants, that's not the case.

"On June 9 I was activated, which means they put this on your head and turn the sound on," said Goncher. There is a period before it's flipped on to let the swelling go down and the surgical area heal, as the outer part of the implant attaches with a magnet.

The implant has given Goncher much more than just her hearing.

"It has changed my life," said Goncher. "My niece can now stay the night with me, I can baby-sit children, I'm looking to get back into the workforce; my life has completely changed for the better.

"I went from 4 percent to 92 percent hearing with just my implant in," said Goncher. "That's what this implant is doing for people; giving individuals like myself who have not had hearing, or who suddenly go deaf, their hearing back. Babies, children; it's letting them live their lives normally in society."

Goncher also has been asked to be an ambassador for Cochlear Americas, the company that produced her implant.

"I'm now able to help other people receive this amazing gift and live better lives," she said.