"The diagnosis of hearing loss sounds worse than it actually is because it can be treated so well."

My name is Bastian and I live in Graz. My son, Konrad is unilaterally implanted. Konrad's unilateral hearing loss was diagnosed by his pediatrician at the age of seven months after an inconspicuous newborn hearing screening with a high tone rattle. He was then initially given a conventional hearing aid, which he found difficult to accept. At the age of three, he then received a cochlear implant, which he accepted immediately. At the age of four, a further hearing loss was diagnosed on the other ear with a hearing threshold of 50-60db, and today he wears a hearing aid on this side.
Konrad is never out and about without his CI, it helped him a lot to develop his directional hearing. Even though he still struggles to understand in larger groups, he does much better in one-to-one situations.

It is important to me to encourage other parents and to show them that such a situation can be handled positively.