Saw this on Drudge, but it was one of those “developing” stories. Do y’all know any more?
Quasi
They just announced that he has an affliction that made him deaf in one ear and almost deaf in teh other. THey are going to discuss it later this afternoon.
It’d explain a lot…
No wonder. Almost 30 years of performing loud rock concerts is bound to affect hearing. Is it the whole band or just one or two of them?
Oh, you mean Limbaugh. Who cares… :rolleyes:
He has some disease that has been developing for 3 months. He is completely deaf in one ear and can’t understand anything out of teh other. His career is probably voer.
Even if you do not like him, It is a very shitty thing to have happen to you.
I don’t see why his career would have to be over. As long as he can still speak clearly, a radio career is not at all out of the question. He might not be able to take live callers anymore (unless there is some speech-to-text device that would make such a thing possible for him), but he can still speak into a microphone, look at VU meters, and take visual cues from a producer.
The word is “deaf,” not “death,” after all.
I would imagine that the problem would be enunciation and volume control. I imagine that the callers word could be transcribed. But it is tough to talk when you can’t hear yourself. This might not be a problem this week, but a year down the road it may.
Read Rush Limbaugh’s statement: I am a Lucky Man.
If you’re like AWB or fandago and don’t have anything constructive to add, take your comments to the place where they belong - the Pit.
Could that explain why he’s trying to speak more clearly and distinctly?
Guinastasia - a explanation is contained in the link above, or you can read the excerpt below:
As an audiologist, I feel like I have to clarify something that Rush Limbaugh said (in the second page of his annoucement):
Rush is right about one thing. Cochlear implant surgery is irreversible in the sense that it will destroy any remaining residual hearing. Hence the criteria established by the FDA that it should not be implanted in anyone with any usable residual hearing. (That’s the reason why I was rejected as a cochlear implant candidate in 1981, even though I’m severely to profoundly deaf. I get enough benefit from hearing aids.)
However, cochlear implant surgery does NOT involve the brain. Not even close. The implant is placed in the cochlea, and nowhere near any portion of the brain. There is a variation of the cochlear implant called the auditory brainstem implant (ABI), where the electrodes are implanted in the brainstem, but that device is still highly experimental.
Cochlear implants are not hearing aids. They don’t amplify sounds the way hearing aids do, so if Limbaugh does get a cochlear implant (and in my opinion, judging from his report, he is likely to be a good candidate), he is not going to perceive sound the same way a person would with hearing aids. He would have to “re-learn” how to hear with the cochlear implant, and that would take time.
I feel bad for the guy. I’m not a big fan of Rush Limbaugh, but this is not a good thing to have happen to anyone.
??? I was saying that it’d explain a lot about the quality of the show degrading. I.E. more rants, fewer meaningful interactions.
Slight hijack, out of admiration and curiosity:
Atreyu, how is it possible for someone with almost no hearing to function as an audiologist?
Opinions about the Rush Limbaugh show belong in IMHO, GD or the Pit, depending on content.
Jokes about confusing Rush the conservative radio personality with Rush the Canadian rock band belong pretty much anywhere, as long as they’re funny, which that one pretty much was (if predictible).
Well, as I hinted in my earlier post, I do get enough benefit from hearing aids to be rejected as a candidate for cochlear implantation.
Without my hearing aids, I hear nothing at all, except for exceptionally loud sounds that are close by. The way I’ve often described the extent of my hearing loss to others is to say that if I wanted to hear the television without my hearing aids, I would have to turn the volume to the maximum level, and then put my left ear (the better ear) next to the speaker.
With my hearing aids, I still do not have anything resembling normal hearing. The best way for me to understand someone else is to takke what I can get from my hearing aids and combine it with lip-reading. That doesn’t mean I’m helpless on the telephone, though. I can have conversations on the phone, but since I can’t lip-read on the telephone, I have a preference for telephones with built-in volume controls and for having telephone conversations with people that I already know. Hence my immense dislike for telemarketers.
I also generally do not use the telephone to chit chat. I generally only use the telephone to get something done…if I want to visit with someone, I do it person. (I make an exception for my relatives in Florida…like a good boy, I call my grandparents to keep in touch.)
With regards to audiology, there is really only one main area of testing that could have posed a problem for me. The administration of word recognition tests require the patient to repeat back the word that they think they hear. I have to make sure that I heard their response correctly in order to ensure that the results are accurate. For this reason, I always have the patient sitting towards the window in the soundbooth (many audiologists have them sitting sideways relative to the soundbooth window), and I always adjust the lighting so that I can easily see their face. In addition, there is a headphone conencted to the audiometer that allows me to hear what the patient is saying inside the soundbooth. I can adjust the volume on that headphone, and usually do, up to the maximum setting.
There have been rare occasions where I had no choice but to turn over the word recognition testing to another audiologist. In all cases, it was because the patient had facial paralysis secondary to a stroke, and lip-reading them was damn near impossible.
When I started my clinical fellowship, my CF supervisor wanted to make sure that word recognition testing would not pose a difficulty for me. For the first two days, another audiologist scored the results alongside me. The results were virtually identical, and they never had concerns about me after that.
[/end of long hijack]
If he can’t hear himself speak eventually he’s gonna have a deaf accent unless he has a voice coach, which is he probably does.
That’s odd, I thought the deaf “accent” came from learning a language while hearing impaired. If someone already knows how the language sounds, why wouldn’t they be able to continue to speak it the same way they had while hearing?
A good friend of mine is deaf, but has worn hearing aids from infancy, and although I tease him about his accent, it’s because he’s from BAW-stin, not because he’s deaf. He talks just like everyone else I know from there.
Corr
First thought that came to mind when I heard this news was, “Hey, did Rush ever listen to anyone anyway?”
Tacky, I know; but 'twas the 1st thought that came to mind.
2nd thought was, “Deaf ain’t dead, he should be able to cope.”
That has nothing to do with being hearing impaired!
For what its worth I can relate to some extent. The Little Lagomorph, 19 months old, has a mild to moderate hearing loss.
I’m worried about good ol’ Rush. He should get an MRI of the posterior fossa to rule out an acoustic neuroma.