consumers/hearing aids with some CI mixed in

[gandalf at infi.net]

Impressive, Susan! 

Caring and thoughtfulness are not so rare after all. This response shows the 
kind of audiology I am used to practicing and seeing in my fellow 
practitioners. Thank you for your honesty.

You can work with my mother anytime.

Michael

>On Wed, 24 Sep 1997, Patricia Burns wrote:

>> Susan M Lopez wrote:
>> > 
>> > Today, I saw a woman who was 82 years old.
>> --------%<----------
>> > (However, based
>> > on the discrim score, you could argue that no hearing aid circuit would
>> > make that much difference).
>> --------%<--------
>>       And did you not suggest a cochlear implant?
>> Patricia

>        No.  I didn't.  She wouldn't have qualified for an implant based
>on her hearing thresholds and the discrim score.  I am basing this on my
>experience working with the cochlear implant program in Iowa at the Univ.
>of Iowa.

>        Michael Riddenhour added a wry comment that he sold just such a
>patient such a hearing aid at a "ridiculous price" and something about how
>maybe he should be tarred and feathered for it, etc. etc. based on my
>comments.

>        My first reaction to this woman was that she had been had.  After
>thinking about it, I'm not sure that she was.  I do know that I wouldn't
>have charged what she paid for what she got for her money...and I probably
>wouldn't have ordered her an aid with a class A circuit.  However....she
>had been fairly happy with them from what I could tell.  Her daughter was
>the one who made her mom come in.  So I probably jumped the gun with my
>righteous indignation.  I guess I felt that for what this woman *reported*
>she paid for her aids, I would've expected a higher end product.  But, she
>bought it, and didn't return it after her 30 day trial period.  And I
>didn't bother to find out who her dispenser/audiologist was to check her
>story. So I was definately in the wrong.

>        I was writing in a combination of anger and frustration from the
>recent threads from consumers complaining about prices and the general
>lack of knowledge about hearing aids and what the money a consumer pays is
>for.  Everyone wants the best but nobody wants to pay for it.  I had had a
>bad day, and it showed.  Sorry everyone!

>Susan

>(all comments are mine, and have nothing to do with those of my employer)