2. Patient Stories
3. David Leslie

David Leslie

David started his career in the British Army, the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers (REME), joining "as a boy in 1961 and spent much of my early years on jungle operations in the Far East”. He left the Army after 17 years of service.

Life continued to be exciting for David as he spent 5 years as a professional yachtsman, racing yachts around the world. After a busy career in International business, he is now retired and lives in the countryside in the middle of France.

David first noticed he had a hearing problem about 20 years ago when he started to find it difficult to hear what people were saying in noisy environments. It was worse when he was in public places, like a busy restaurant with background noise.

He also had mild tinnitus which didn’t affect his quality of life as he was able to learn to live with it, or habituate, most of the time.

"When I was in a quiet place I noticed the sound but it was never a serious irritation to me. Fortunately, the tinnitus was only mild and as I had grown up in an environment where I could sleep anywhere, it didn’t really affect my sleep.

Another problem I found was that loud noises such as announcements on public address speakers could be quite painful.

It was only recently I decided to do something about it as my hearing was starting to get worse and I was struggling to hear conversations. I was in a noisy restaurant with things crashing around in the background and I realised my hearing couldn’t cope with it."

"I did some research and came across The Tinnitus Clinic website which described how they might be able to sort out all my hearing issues.

The Clinic staff and Naziya the Senior Audiologist were very helpful and explained everything really well.

I have the specially programmed Siemens hearing aids which are very comfortable. I wore them for a couple of days and forgot I had them in. I live out in the countryside so it’s not like I need to wear them everyday.

After six months I returned to the The Tinnitus Clinic for a check-up and as I no longer had tinnitus, Naziya adjusted the devices accordingly. I particularly noticed the lack of tinnitus and improved hearing when I was watching TV. Before, when the background music was playing I couldn’t hear what they were saying. Now I am able to hear like anyone else which is a huge difference. I have also reduced the volume of the TV by 20% which pleases my wife.

And I don’t have a problem in restaurants anymore, I can hear what people are saying. Before I had to look straight at people to distinguish what they were saying, I don’t need to do that anymore."

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