WHO IS SARAH?

Sarah was born almost deaf but due to intensive training in her younger years, she learned to speak and lip-read. Still, growing up the deficit increased, up to a point where hearing aids were of no more use. Almost a year ago she decided to jump in the deep end and had an operation performed on her right ear. Now she sports a so-called Cochlear implant: a method which transfers sounds straight to the auditory nerve and effectively bypasses her outer ear/eardrum etc. This operation was a great succes: Sarah is now hearing sounds she had never heard before. Sarah said, after getting her first implant: "Just the fact that I could hear sound was amazing!"

Unfortunately, her medical insurance also seems to think it was totally succesful. Sarah would love to get a second implant, because she now clearly feels her hearing is imbalanced (imagine being deaf on one side only...), however this second operation would not be liable for refund.
Apparently, hearing on one side you're not handicapped enough anymore to get help? Since the insurance doesn't intervene, a second cochlear implant would cost her 25.000 euro. And that's not counting revalidation, professional guidance and possible parts replacement after a number of years.

So with this project and publication we want to bring Sarah a bit closer to her operation!