About Me-When and How They Found Out I Was Deaf

I was born in the Booth Memorial Hospital in Queens, N.Y.C. in the summer of 1964. Back in those old days, they didn't screen babies for hearing loss in that hospital. The doctors there, never said anything to my parents about my hearing problem. Therefore my parents had no idea I was born deaf. We lived in N.Y.C. for a while, then moved into a colony house with a pool in New Brunswick, N.J. My parents were concerned because whenever they tried to call my name, I never responded to them. They wanted me to learn how to talk, but I couldn't speak. I didn't learn how to talk for three years after I was born. My mother tried to take me to numerous places to find out why I wasn't talking or responding to people when they talked to me. When we lived in Whitestone, N.Y. the doctors misdiagnosed me in the sense that they assured my mother nothing was wrong. The same was true when we moved to New Brunswick, NJ. The pediatrician there told my mom that I could hear. She asked him to tell her where I could be tested for my hearing. He said I was too young to be tested on. He was wrong because even then they could test toddlers for hearing loss. My mother had some friends, that suggested she take me to see an audiologist when I was three years old. There, they did a hearing test on me. That's when they told her I was deaf. It took three years for my parents to find this out. They gave me my first hearing aids and I started speech therapy because I did not know how to speak. When I was finally diagnosed, she took me back to that doctor and showed him my hearing aids. She also told him where people could take babies to be tested. My mom had to take me to New York City to have me tested and diagnosed. She never found a place in N.J. to have me tested until I was a lot older. It's ashamed that there was huge lack of resources for deaf people back in the 1960's and in the 1970's in New Jersey. The doctors there were uneducated on deafness. They didn't know anything about my hearing problem whenever my mom took me to be checked on why I wasn't talking. I can remember how lost I felt for 3 years when I couldn't speak or hear at all. If I wanted a drink, or something to eat, I didn't have any way of expressing myself or asking for it. If I was tired, or wanted to tell my parents anything, like if I wasn't feeling well, I couldn't tell them that. And it is not a pleasant feeling to know, that I had to go through this for awhile. This is how I was brought into the world due to doctors lack of knowledge on deafness. They could of helped me much sooner, only if the doctors would of known I was deaf. It would of been nice if the doctors in N.J. could of diagnosed my deafness before I was 3 years old, life would of been a bit easier. I could of learned to talk much sooner. Most of all I would of been able to express myself much earlier in my life to my parents and family. But I couldn't speak to ask for anything or express myself until I got those hearing aids and learned how to talk when I was 3.