THE WOODLANDS, Texas – A north Texas mom has become an Internet sensation after a YouTube video of her hearing for the first time in her life went viral.
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With millions of videos, Sarah Churman's story has now hit the media circuit. What you may not know is that now famous amateur video was shot in The Woodlands.
Video of Churman's emotional reaction to hearing for the first time was shot by her husband, Sloan.
The 29-year-old wife and mom was born severely hearing impaired and could only hear vibrations and very loud noises, until now.
She said on the video, "I don't want to hear myself cry."
Melinda Marthaler is the voice off camera in that now famous clip.
She works at Envoy Medical in The Woodlands where Sarah's Esteem Hearing Implant was surgically implanted and activated.
Marthaler told Local 2, "I didn't know it was taped until I saw it on YouTube."
"We see this response all the time. Patient activations are very emotional for them," Shelly Amann with Envoy customer relations said.
Churman's tearful video went viral and earned her guest appearances on The Today Show and Ellen, raising awareness about the Esteem implant.
Approved by the Food and Drug Administration in March 2010, it works for about 80 percent of people with sensory neural hearing loss.
"It senses the sounds that once in, through your ear canal, your natural ear, it amplifies the signal sent to the cochlea," Amann said.
"Most patients describe it as everything just gets very clear. It's like you've turned on a switch," Marthaler said.
The implantation is an outpatient surgery and there's minimal scarring.
"Patients always talk about, 'I can now go running. With the Esteem, I can go golf, I can go to parties. Background noise is not an issue for me because I have this device," Amann said.
The device is not cheap at $30,000 per ear.
Ellen heard how Churman's family struggled to pay for the device and presented her with a check from Envoy to cover the cost of both devices.
The Esteem Hearing Implant is not covered by insurance, nor are most hearing aids.