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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah woman can hear in stereo again thanks to a generous stranger.
Savanna, who lives on a farm in Utah, was diagnosed with unilateral hearing loss — or deafness in one ear— as a junior in high school. Her left ear was affected, leaving her unable to hear from it without the amplification from a hearing aid.
She has been saving money up for a hearing aid, as her insurance provider would not cover the device. But after losing her job at the beginning of December, the savings was depleted by the expenses of farm upkeep, feeding and caring for her animals and her personal expenses.
Last week, she vent her frustrations on Reddit, a social news website and forum, explaining her plight and desire for a hearing aid. Not long after, a Reddit reader by the username jlesamiz sent Savanna a personal message offering to buy the woman a hearing aid.
The small device was shipped to Savanna. She picked it up Wednesday, posting a photo of her holding the black box and grinning in her purple overalls.
"This little device has allowed me so much," she wrote on the image hosting website Imgur. "I listened to the rain hit the roof today. I can locate sounds better."
For her, those sounds are those of the farm like her chickens and ducks, her horse named Milo and her two dogs. Sounds that before she lost her hearing, were commonplace and understood.
Savanna said she will begin school again, hopefully in the upcoming spring semester.
