Archive for June, 2010

From: David H
Sent: 03 June 2010 11:48
To: Selma Becker
Subject: Appreciation

 Dear Selma

My “Oticon Agils” have magical properties on a par with Harry Potter’s “Nimbus 2000″.  They have brought the skylarks back to our fields, allowed me to identify all four instruments in a string quartet, stopped my wife shouting at me to turn the TV down and my 4 daughters from calling me a deaf old git.

 None of this would have been achieved without your expert analysis and follow-up sessions, all done with charm and good humour and the ability to explain the high-tech solutions in language that even this dinosaur found readily intelligible.

Unlike the apprehension of a visit to the dentist or even the doctor, the next appointment with you is something eagerly anticipated  –  and my only regret at the rapid progress to-date is that I now have to wait some 3 months before next seeing you and Marguerite.

Yes, the solution was expensive but, compared with the foreign holiday foregone, a bargain  – and no air-strikes or volcanic ash.

With many thanks and best wishes,

 David

I would very much like to record my own gratitude for the excellent care you’ve given me at my various appointments with you – your committed professionalism and concern has made the whole process of wearing hearing aids much easier.

Many thanks for all your patience with me over the last 6 years … do you know, you’ve actually managed to turn a visit to the audiologist into a pleasurable experience!’

You have been so kind and helpful to me over the years. In particular, I would like to thank you again for the wonderful way you treated my mother-in-law.

You were such a great help to me in those traumatic times in trying to cope with hearing loss. Your outstanding patience and the way you coped with my little panics over a hearing aid.

Every stage, from the hearing test to fitting the aids is easy and comfortable. The whole experience is life changing for anyone like me whose hearing has deteriorated.

I have been wearing Oticon Delta hearing aids since May 2006 and cannot recommend them too highly. I put them in my ears every morning (after cleaning my teeth because the noise is off-putting) and then forget about them until I take them out at bedtime. The difference in hearing – speech, bird-song, music etc, is remarkable.

On noticing my loss of hearing over the years and becoming more and more frustrated at missing what my friends and family were saying, I plucked up courage to consult a hearing specialist (Selma Becker) …. At that time the waiting list for the NHS service was at least one year.

Since then my life has changed completely. … What is more, nobody knows I am hard of hearing until I remove my hearing aid. … Buying a hearing aid has opened up my life.

I have held for a long time the view that when seeking satisfactory professional services it is necessary to find somebody in whom you can put your complete trust, and for a long time now I have had an unreserved confidence in your technical competence and professional judgement. Even so, I doubt whether I would have believed you, had you told my new Phonak Exelia hearing aids would make the dramatic improvement in my hearing that they have.

Their performance is truly amazing. Not only am I hearing sound which I have not heard for a long time but I am actually hearing sounds, such as the slight clicks from the DVD player, which I have never heard before. Further, I can listen again to music which now has meaning without continual adjustment of the volume control so that I can enjoy the full dynamic range and with a tonal quality enabling each instrument to be distinguished clearly.

These factors must, however, pale into insignificance when considered against the main use of hearing, communication. It is impossible for those not affected by a hearing disability to understand how isolated one can become. For me, just talking to one other person in crowded areas often became impossible. I was finding I could not even participate in the conversation of seven or eight round a table in a restaurant and even at home, two others talking in the same room made hearing the television so extremely difficult to the extent of it sometimes being not worth the effort of trying to comprehend. With these aids all the above are now possible and I find I can now converse with a group even in a very noisy bar.

Although I have had these aids for a little over one month, several friends have already commented on the change in my physical appearance saying the strained appearance I have had for some time has disappeared.

Of course, with instruments of this nature it is impossible to disassociate the articles themselves from the necessary attendant services which, in this case, as I have come to expect, has been exemplary. First, there was the care and consideration that went into selecting this particular type. I had not realised there were so many different manufacturers let alone the vast number of aids produced by them. Secondly, there was the after-sale service. These aids are complex with many optional facilities and could require a lot of fine tuning. No effort has been spared to ensure that mine have been adjusted to give me a maximum possible benefit.

I cannot thank you enough for the tremendous improvement you have made to the quality of not only my life but also to the lives of those close to me.

Geoff Hawkins

I have been using my Oticon hearing aids for several months and feel so pleased with them I am obliged to put pen to paper. When you recommended these initially I had some misgivings, having used “in the ear” aids for many years.

The experience of these now is something else, dinners, theatre, opera, music have now become a pleasure.  Previous to using these whilst there was enjoyment I was rarely able to join in conversation, I often did not have a clue what the topic was.

It would be incorrect to say Oticon has given me natural hearing ability because I long ago lost the ability to hear naturally. However, for me they have come a long way to achieving this. The great thing in my experience they have greatly reduced much of the background noise and unwanted sounds which previously my hearing aids picked up drowning out what I really wanted to hear.

I am delighted with them and whilst expensive in my experience represent true value for money and help greatly forward full enjoyment and pleasure in life.

David Wager