Deaf Woman Hears Her Voice for First Time

Sarah Churman loves hearing her daughters, she tells 'Today'
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 3, 2011 12:01 PM CDT
Updated Oct 8, 2011 7:00 AM CDT

In a dramatic and touching video, Sarah Churman—severely hearing impaired from birth—heard herself for the first time. The video, shot by Churman's husband, shows Churman crying as her new Esteem Inner Ear Stimulator, the first implantable hearing aid for people with her specific condition, is turned on. The heartwarming scene has already racked up more than 6 million views on YouTube, and the Churmans were on Today; watch both videos in the gallery.

"I nearly didn’t videotape it, if it wasn’t for my mother saying, 'You’re GOING to video this, we need to see this,'" husband Sloan told Today. "I wouldn’t have done it, because this was intimate for us; this was like getting married or having a child." Churman, 29, says it has been "pretty amazing" to hear her two young daughters' voices, and that it was surprising to learn she has a Texas accent—but there is one sound she doesn't particularly like: her husband's snoring. "Yeah, that I didn’t listen to very long!" she says. (More deaf stories.)

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