Watch A 40-Year-Old Deaf Woman Hear For The First Time

Jo Milne of the U.K. had Usher Syndrome and was deaf since birth. Then she got cochlear implants that were switched on after a month.

“The switch-on was the most emotional and overwhelming experience of my life and I’m still in shock now. The first day everybody sounded robotic and I have to learn to recognise what these sounds are as I build a sound library in my brain,” Milne told The Journal.

Milne is also able to listen to music for the first time. Her friend Tremayne Crossley, who posted this video to YouTube, put together an “Introduction to Music” playlist—including Prince, Bruce Springsteen, The Smiths, and Nirvana—which was played out for Milne on BBC6 Music earlier this week.

The first song she heard? John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

By: Cheston Catalano

Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.