National MP Michael Woodhouse is profoundly deaf in one ear. In the future he may have to look at wearing a hearing aid.

National’s health spokesman Michael Woodhouse. National’s health spokesman Michael Woodhouse.

“It is a very debilitating condition … I don’t think people understand quite how socially isolating.

“When I was at school, I would always sit on the right hand side of the classroom. So my good ear was out to the teacher.

“People can think I’m aloof for ignoring them. But I can function quite well and at the moment I feel like it isn’t a hindrance to my social interactions except in a large crowd, where it can be quite a problem.”

The Opposition has pledged to boost funding. During the 2017 election campaign, the National government agreed to pay for an extra 60 operations, after a campaign by 22-year-old Danielle MacKay, who spent three years on the waiting list.

Danielle MacKay fronted a campaign to increase cochlear implant funding in 2017. Danielle MacKay fronted a campaign to increase cochlear implant funding in 2017.

The surgeries took place. But the following year, the Government discontinued the additional funding.

“It flummoxed me,” Woodhouse says.

It was callous, but it was also politically, I think, very naive. Michael Woodhouse

He says National will restore the funding if elected again in September.

Associate Minister of Health Jenny Salesa says she wants to see “more significant investment” in cochlear implants and will lobby her colleagues, including Health Minister David Clark.

“It is completely inaccurate to say that National increased funding for cochlear implants, and that our Government has cut funding for this important area,” she says. “National cynically made a one-off election year spend but they didn’t lift the baseline funding to ensure their one-off hit was replicated in subsequent years.

“Disability has long been underfunded in our health system, and I acknowledge that turning around decades of underfunding will take time ... I hear from families and advocates that more is needed, including for cochlear operations.”

MacKay is now able to take on a full-time job. MacKay is now able to take on a full-time job.

Those sentiments don’t impress MacKay, who fought hard for her implant, overcoming crippling nerves to speak to a crowd on the steps of Parliament and persuading 26,000 people to sign her petition.

She underwent the procedure in October 2017. But it has been a long and frustrating journey.

A cochlear implant is very different to a hearing aid, which simply amplify sounds. Hearing with an implant is much more active – and patients must learn to hear.

At first many just perceive noise – volume, but not speech. They often cannot understand the sound – and the brain must ‘rewire’ itself.

It can take months of hard work, speech therapy and audiology appointments before hearing becomes a reality.

“There were lots of times where I would constantly take the implant out and leave it,” she says. “The first year was the most frustrating and emotional ride ... at times I did get upset because I didn’t think it was working, and it was taking too long for my hearing to get back to normal.

“The truth is that it is still not perfect but it is a whole lot better ... Hearing the birds for the very first time, the fridge and washing machine – a weird sound to learn.

“I am now able to understand my family on the phone … it has absolutely, 100 per cent changed my life.”

MacKay chats with her co-worker Sinau Otutaha in sign language. MacKay chats with her co-worker Sinau Otutaha in sign language.

MacKay was delighted when she landed a full time job at Turks Poultry in Foxton. “I’m fortunate enough that Turks love to have me working for them…most deaf people are stuck at home with no jobs because no-one will employ them because they can’t hear.”

She’s “sad and angry” others are being denied the same opportunities.

“Are we not important anymore? More and more people are needing a cochlear implant, and unfortunately not everyone can afford it so the waiting list just keeps getting longer.

“It’s not a luxury to us. We want a life, to be able to work for a living.”

MacKay’s campaign temporarily increased funding for 60 extra operations. MacKay’s campaign temporarily increased funding for 60 extra operations.

At 48, Simon Baldock has given up hope of ever hearing again. He was assessed as eligible for an implant last year, but without extra funding, he will remain on the waiting list.

He says the experience is “almost cruel”.

“The impression given is that this magic wand of a cochlear implant will happen to you ... And then to receive a letter stating that you do meet the eligibility requirements comfortably [but] due to funding constraints this won’t happen. I’m still in a bit of shock processing that I won’t get one.”

A genetic condition saw his hearing begin to deteriorate as a teenager and has got progressively worse in the last 18 months.

Simon Baldock fears he will never receive an implant. Simon Baldock fears he will never receive an implant.

A psychologist, from Picton, Baldock now fears for his job.

He says every day is “mentally and physically exhausting” and interactions with groups of people have become impossible.

“All I try to do is survive through to the end of each day as it is very tiring, physically, physiologically and emotionally.

“I used to be quite sociable, involved in football, cricket. I loved going to the theatre. Over time I have lost access to music, TV, being able to go to the cinema and conversations with more than one or two people simultaneously.

“Social gatherings I now tend to try to avoid if I can. It is really emotionally challenging to be sat there, at a family gathering, desperately wanting to be part of the conversation … but just sitting and nodding, smiling, exchanging pleasantries and not really knowing what is going on.