ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. — If the most important thing in a relationship is communication, problems are bound to arise if a couple can't hear one another. 

What You Need To Know

  • Dennis and Susan O'Neil just had a bone-anchored hearing aid implanted to help with their hearing

  • They had the Cochlear Osia implanted. It uses unparalleled digital piezoelectric stimulation to bypass non-functional areas of the natural hearing system and send sound directly to the cochlea

  • It is designed to improve hearing outcomes for adults and children as young as five years old with conductive hearing loss, mixed hearing loss and single-sided deafness (SSD)

  • The O'Neils had their surgery done at Advent Health Dade City by Dr. Joseph Derbyshire

This was the case for Dennis and Susan O’Neil. Both of them were losing their hearing. 

“You don’t really realize initially, I don’t think, that you have hearing loss. So you know it just gets worse and worse where you’re constantly saying, ‘What, what, what did you say?’” said Susan O’Neil. 

Hearing loss often comes with age, but in their 70s, the O’Neil’s firmly felt there was too much life left to ignore this hearing problem. 

Through Advent Health Dade City, they were connected to Dr. Joseph Derbyshire of Vitale Ear, Nose and Throat. He has dealt with many cases like the O’Neil’s. 

“There have been a plethora of great studies that have come out that shown hearing loss being associated with early onset dementia. So keeping, you know, your ears running and functional is crucial for our brain health as we get older,” said Derbyshire.

“Both of our mothers died of Alzheimer’s, and we watched the slow progression of Alzheimer’s. And here we were having the same kind of hearing loss,” said Dennis. 

The O’Neil’s decided to fix their hearing together. On the same day, together. 

They both had an Osia Cochlear device surgically put in at Advent Health Dade City.

Derbyshire did the surgeries and said this device is not a traditional hearing aid. It is a bone anchored hearing aid. 

“We put a device directly into the skull behind the ear, and this transmits sound directly to the nerve. So the patient can hear,” said Derbyshire. 

“It was like going from black and white to Technicolor. It was astounding,” said Dennis. 

But just getting the one ear fixed was not enough for the O’Neil’s. 

“I am just anxious to get the other side done now,” said Dennis with a smile. 

Their second surgery is coming up this summer at Advent Health Dade City. They will both once again get it done together on the same day. 

The surgery takes 30 to 40 minutes.