At our last Tuesday meeting, our speaker was one of our Rotary family, Simon Messenger’s wife Nicole Gatto, whose other claim to fame is as an audiologist, known to a number of our members. Simon and Nicole have a daughter Ruby and a Border Terrier, Pirate. Nicole studied at Melbourne University and had 25 plus years’ experience as an audiologist. She started her own audiology practice in Cotham Road, Kew around 5 years ago.
Nicole who claimed that she “would rather sing than speak in public” provided a very impressive video on the topic of hearing loss, communication with those who are deaf from the perspective of those who are already deaf, or aware of the degradation of their hearing.
 President Mark Howlett, Nicole Gatto & Cheryl Pisterman |
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se of us who have extremely good hearing, the video was very confronting and makes us aware of how we must learn to not only work with our family and friends who cannot hear, as well as we can but also be kind.Following the video, Nicole answered some very meaningful questions from the audience – contradicting her claim about public speaking. The questions reflected the care and concern of many in relation to, not just the physical, but also the mental and social impact of hearing loss. One of the answers related to the fact that the percentage of deaf people is growing – particularly in those who have listened to loud, intense music or worked in noisy environments without the use of ear protection.
Discussion also was generated on the benefits and operations of a bionic ear – Nicole recommended that if one was interested, it was worth being assessed. With the permission of the Chairman Cheryl, she gave the example of one of her patients, one Rotarian David Pisterman, who had that day obtained a referral to Professor Robert Briggs, who specialises in Cochlear implantation, to investigate whether he should consider this option.
Meanwhile the audience was very engaged with the topic and the impact of the video was evident.