Ear With Cochlear Implant - Image: National Institutes of Health

20-something Sloan Churman was born deaf. Eight weeks ago she received a cochlear implant. Now, for the first time in her life, she can hear. Her response? 

“My laughter sounds loud.”

At Sloan’s YouTube channel she writes, “God provided the means to pay for the surgery.” At the link above she can be seen reacting in that incredible moment when she hears her own voice for the first time.

According to this website produced by the National Institutes of Health, cochlear implants don’t actually allow the deaf to hear as others do, but “it can give a deaf person a useful representation of sounds in the environment and help him or her to understand speech.”

Regardless of what those “representations of sounds” are like to Sloan, one thing is clear in the video: she is overwhelmed with joy, and it is a delight to watch. Enjoy!