A video showing a deaf woman hearing her own voice for the first time with the help of a hearing implant has gone viral.
Sloan Churman, 29, was born deaf and relied on reading lips and hearing aids until she received the surgically-implanted device.
In the video shot by her husband and posted on video-sharing website YouTube, Churman cries as she hears sounds, including her own voice and her husband's laughter, for the first time as the implant was activated.
Two months ago Churman received Envoy Medical's Esteem Implant. It uses ear drum vibrations to bring hearing back to its users.
On her YouTube channel, Churman wrote: "I was born deaf and eight weeks ago I received a hearing implant. This is the video of them turning it on and me hearing myself for the first time."
According to the company's website, the implant is the only fully surgically-implantable hearing device for sensorineural hearing loss that uses the natural ear as a microphone.
The implant, which is not visible on the user, has a sound processor implanted behind the outer ear and two transducers implanted in the middle ear to use the eardrum as a microphone, picking up sounds through the ear canal.
