Woman who lost hearing fights tears as she gets to hear family for the first time in touching video

“Hi Mom, can you hear us?” Holly’s children asked. She hesitated, then softly replied “Yes,” and instantly burst into tears. This was the first time, in January 2024, when she was able to hear a voice after almost three decades of hearing loss. Holly Cain (@holly.cain) had been suffering from Ménière’s disease and for 30 years she couldn’t hear her own voice. And when finally she did, one of her children captured the tearjerker moment in a video that Holly posted on her Instagram. As Holly began responding to their voices, raw emotions surfaced causing the entire family to have a good cry.

According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Ménière’s disease is a disorder of the inner ear that causes severe dizziness (vertigo), ringing in the ears (tinnitus), hearing loss, and a feeling of fullness or congestion in the ear. Ménière’s disease usually affects only one ear. The root cause behind this disease is the buildup of fluid in the compartment of the inner ear called the labyrinth, that controls the balance of the body. In Ménière’s disease, the fluid buildup in the labyrinth interferes with the normal balance and hearing signals between the inner ear and the brain. This triggers vertigo and other symptoms.

The disease is more likely to happen to adults between 40 and 60 years of age. Approximately 615,000 individuals in the US are currently diagnosed with Ménière’s disease. In Holly’s case, she decided to switch from a hearing aid to a cochlear implant to treat her condition. NIDCH defines a cochlear implant as a small, complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The implant consists of an external portion that sits behind the ear and a second portion that is surgically placed under the skin, although the footage Holly shares doesn’t reveal any physical signs of surgery.

“My mom hearing our voices for the first time,” read the caption of the video, as it displayed Holly sitting in a chair dressed in grey. “It’s buzzing,” she said to the doctor, while her children kept whispering in the background. “I don’t know what to say,” she said in the moment as her implant was being activated. She was beginning to hear things.

“How does this sound to you?” the doctor asked. She was shocked, overwhelmed, and was still trying to process it, wiping tears that were trickling from her eyes. “Very alien-ish,” she then described the sound. “I can’t really stand listening to myself.” She confirmed that she was able to hear their voices, calling this new state “weird” and “crazy.” The doctor told her that it was simply a part of different sounds, different pitches. “Wow!” Holly said and wiped a tear with a napkin.

“It's amazing how we take our hearing for granted when we're young. So happy that you can hear it again. I found it amazing all the things our brains have to relearn when we can hear,” @nswayze58 said, commenting on the video.

You can follow Holly Cain (@holly.cain) on Instagram to learn more updates on her life.