I Love Hearing in E.M. gives the gift of hearing

An East Meadow business has done its part to help those hard of hearing get the gift of hearing back. Through a partnership with hearing aid manufacturer ReSound, located in upstate New York, I Love Hearing, an audiology center in East Meadow gave away a pair of hearing aids to a woman in need.

I Love Hearing, owned by Amy Sapodin and Alison Hoffman, has locations in East Meadow, Port Washington and New Hyde Park. They opened the East Meadow location in January 2020 right before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

The recipient: Anne Marie, a woman from Carle Place. An ad for the contest was run in local papers in January and the winner was chosen on Feb. 14. To be chosen, an individual had to send a letter saying why they or someone they know would benefit from a pair of hearing aids but hasn’t been able to get treatment due to financial hardship.

“We were just trying to service the community and help patients get back what they lost,” Terry Perumal, the sales director at I Love Hearing said. “Whether it’s age or noise exposure that caused their hearing loss, we’re able to help them get that back.

“Devices like hearing aids get very expensive and sometimes insurances do not cover it,” he said.

Hearing aids can cost anywhere from $3,500 to $7,200.

Perumal said that they received seven to 10 letters but Anne Marie’s story really stuck out to Sapodin and Hoffman. “She shared that she was an existing hearing aid user that at first did not want to wear them because she was young and thought this was something only old people should wear, but after she used them she couldn’t see life without them,” Perumal wrote to the Herald.

Anne Marie, 58, said that her life changed drastically once her husband died three years ago. After not working full time for a while now, she had to get a job to provide for her and her two daughters. She now works full time at a pharmaceutical company in the customer service department and her outdated hearing aids have been making her job way harder.

Perumal said that Anne Marie was so excited when she came in to get her hearing aids fitted on Feb. 14. “She came in as the last appointment of the day and she just couldn’t believe it was happening,” he said.

“I never thought I’d be the recipient,” Anne Marie said. “…There was no way I would have been able to buy a new pair.”

Anne Marie said she started losing her hearing about six years ago. “I recently noticed a lot when I started doing work in community theater,” she said. “[Theater] is something I love to do and I can’t wait to get back to it.”

Having hearing aids has improved her life so much, she said. “[Hearing aids] are not just for old people and that’s what I used to think.”

It takes patients on average seven years with hearing loss to commit to wearing hearing aids, Perumal said. He suggests getting regular hearing checks every year especially around the age of 60.

Losing your hearing can cause other ailments like Alzheimer’s and dementia, Perumal said. “People just think their poor hearing loss is how it’s supposed to be but it’s not,” he said. “People get physicals or get their eyes checked but checking your hearing is just as important.”