This is the heartwarming moment a deaf woman breaks down in tears after hearing her own voice through a cochlear implant for the first time.
Ryany Soares Linhares Marques, 18, laughed in disbelief before asking: “Is this my voice?”
The emotional moment came as a doctor switched on the teenager’s cochlear implant just five days after surgery.
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Footage shows the doctor greeting Ryany in the consulting room in Governador Valadares, Brazil.
He asked: “Ryany, hi, how are you?”
“I’m fine,” she replied before suddenly reacting to the sound.
She said: “How strange. My God.
“Is this my voice? No way. It’s so strange.”
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A woman beside her reassured her: “It’s not strange, your voice is beautiful.”
Ryany then became overwhelmed with emotion as her mum wept beside her, as reported by Whats The Jam.
The touching clip has since racked up more than 2.1million views on Instagram.
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Ryany, from São José do Goiabal in the Rio Doce Valley, was diagnosed with hearing loss aged three.
She began using hearing aids when she was five, which helped her develop spoken language.
But her hearing gradually deteriorated and she was eventually referred for a cochlear implant.
Unlike a hearing aid, the electronic device uses electrodes implanted in the cochlea to stimulate the hearing nerve.
Ryany underwent surgery to receive the MED-EL implant on 9 September before it was activated five days later on 14 September.
The teenager, who has 48,000 Instagram followers, said: “One of the greatest emotions was being able to perceive my own voice through the implant.
“My reaction was surprise, emotion and many tears.
“After only five days from the cochlear implant surgery, the long-awaited moment arrived.
“My first activation and the chance to hear again in a new way.
“My name is Ryany, I have been deaf since I was three years old and today is the most special day.
“I heard real sounds. I’m hearing my voice. I can’t explain it.”
Ryany said she was among the first people in her region to have the device activated just five days after surgery.
Speech therapist Simone Coelho Lana has treated Ryany at Hospital Arnaldo Gavazza in Ponte Nova since she was five.
She said: “Her hearing got steadily worse until an implant was the next step.”
Ryany was later referred to Clínica Emerson Monteiro in Governador Valadares.
Simone said it was the service’s first early activation under new rules.
She added: “That reduces the family’s anxiety, you already see a result.
“It was a great joy for the family, everyone was moved, we were too.
“For her it is a new world.”
Ryany is now beginning the process of learning to interpret and recognise the sounds provided by the implant with the help of speech therapists.
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