“Oh he has hearing aids?”

My father has been in the hospital for the past month with congestive heart failure and goes in and out of being keenly aware and confused. The nurse called  the other day, asking me if my father had a DNR. I asked her why she didn’t ask my father that question and her response was that she asked him, and he blankly stared at her.

I asked the nurse if my father was wearing his hearing aids. Her response to me was “oh he has hearing aids?” I said yes he does and he cannot hear at all without them so when you’re asking him very important questions, please make sure he has them in his ears.  Actually when you’re trying to converse with him about anything, it would be appropriate to make sure he’s wearing his Hearing aids!  Since he can’t do it himself it’s the nurses job to put his hearing in his ears in the morning and take them out at night.

People with significant hearing loss that are in the hospital are often thought to be cognitively out of it, or not lucid enough to answer questions. In the case of my father, he just can’t hear if he’s not wearing his hearing aids.

It’s essential that hospital personnel is aware of a patient who has hearing loss and wears hearing aids to communicate, even if the patient cannot express that themselves. If the patient cannot put their hearing aids in their ears themselves its essential for a staff member to help this patient daily.   The patient’s quality of life is so much improved when they can hear!

It is also the hospitals responsibility to make sure that these hearing aids are kept in a safe place so they don’t get lost. Hearing is the only link to communication for many patients in the hospital. Giving a patient the ability to hear, for some patients in their last days of their life,  is sometimes an oversight.

If you have a family member in the hospital, make sure that the nursing staff documents in the chart that your family member has hearing aids. The nursing staff should be instructed to put the hearing aids in their ear in the morning and take them out at night.

Being in the hospital is hard enough a patient’s quality of life should not be compromised further without being able to hear.  We as the Patients family members and are the best advocates.  We aren’t being annoying, we just want what is best for our loved ones and hearing is part of that!