COLUMBUS, Ohio — Samantha Amway works at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center and treats athletes, dancers, figure skaters and musicians as a physical therapist.
“I really wanted to take that passion in my life of dance with me and I wanted to incorporate it into my physical therapy career,” said Amway.
She has a background in performing arts and competed in dance and gymnastics at a young age.
In 2013 while beginning her professional career, the wife and mother’s life changed forever, when she was diagnosed with Meniere’s Disease—a disorder caused by the build-up of fluid in the inner ear, causing nausea, vomiting, vertigo, and in her case the loss of hearing and ringing in her right ear.
“I could hear sounds, but I had zero percent word recognition, meaning I couldn’t understand anything anyone told me, so even if I did hear a patient speaking to me on my right side, I could tell that they were speaking but I couldn’t actually tell what they were saying,” said Amway.
When she got pregnant in 2019, Amway was nearly deaf in her right ear.
Hearing aids were not helping, and she was in search of a solution.
“She had some pregnancies and think that seemed to exasperate both the tinnitus and hearing loss,” said Wexner Medical Center neurotologist and surgeon Dr. Edward Dodson.
Dodson suggested a cochlear implant, a medical device that restores the ability to perceive sound and understand speech.
However, Amway still had to deal with more hurdles along the way.
“A lot of insurance companies won’t cover cochlear implants for one side of deafness. You have to be two-sided deaf. But after some appeals, and a lot of hard work on her part, we were able to get it pushed through and they did approve it,” said Dodson.
“They charge all evening and then when I wake up in the morning, I can pick which one I want to wear,” says Amway.
Dodson performed the surgery, and Amway received the cochlear implant in November.
She’s experienced significant improvement in her right ear and is able to better communicate with family and clients.
Amway said after her decade-long battle, she wants people in a similar situation to never give up because there are many options out there.
“Don’t stop fighting because I feel like there is a stigma for people who either wear hearing aids or wear cochlear implants and I really want to be able to normalize that,” said Amway.
The NIH says genetic hearing loss accounts for 50% of all cases.
Recent legislation allows hearing aids to be dispensed outside of a medical practice.
Dodson said that’s a positive step, but he encourages patients to continue seeking medical care from an audiologist who can properly program the device on-site.
