Hearing loss journey inspires daughters award-winning invention

When Genevieve Hodgson suddenly lost hearing in her right ear while pregnant with twins, her life changed overnight.

What followed was a journey of specialist care through Fiona Stanley Hospital that would ultimately inspire her eight-year-old daughter, Asha, to create an award-winning invention recognised on the world stage.

Living in Cowaramup in Western Australia's southwest, Genevieve was referred urgently to the hospital in 2017 after experiencing sudden sensorineural hearing loss, a medical emergency requiring prompt treatment.

Despite being heavily pregnant and living hours from Perth, she was seen by the hospital's Ear Nose and Throat team within 12 hours. After extensive investigations and treatment attempts, her profound single-sided hearing loss was diagnosed as permanent.

In 2019, she received a cochlear implant and has continued to receive support from the hospital's audiology team to optimise her hearing and adapt to life with hearing loss.

"My experience with Fiona Stanley Hospital has been exceptional. From the moment they fast-tracked my first appointment, the care has always been timely, compassionate and highly professional," Genevieve said.

"Receiving my cochlear implant changed my life. It hasn't restored my natural hearing, but it has switched the right side of my hearing brain back on."

Today, Genevieve accesses the hospital’s audiology service remotely, allowing her to attend appointments closer to home instead of making a six-hour return trip to Perth.

Through the service, local clinicians connect directly with her specialist audiologist to assess her hearing and fine-tune her cochlear implant processor in real time.

"Remote audiology has been a game changer for me," Genevieve said.

Head of Department Dr Dayse Távora-Vieira said Genevieve's journey demonstrated the life-changing impact of timely access to specialist hearing care.

“Cochlear implantation is not the end of the journey, but the beginning,’ Dayse said.

“Restoring hearing is about much more than technology. It is the ongoing partnership between the rehabilitation team, patients and their families that helps people adapt, thrive and reconnect with the sounds and people they love.

“One of the greatest privileges of our profession is witnessing that journey and seeing how Genevieve's experience inspired Asha's innovation reminds us that the impact of hearing care can reach across generations.”

Growing up alongside her mother's hearing loss, Asha saw an opportunity to help solve one of the challenges Genevieve still faced: hearing important sounds while asleep. She designed a smart sleep mask that vibrates when it detects sounds such as a smoke alarm, a baby crying or someone calling your name.

The invention earned Asha a place among 10 global winners in the MED-EL IDEASforEARS Children's Invention Contest (external site) and a trip to Austria to meet hearing experts and fellow young inventors from around the world.

"As a parent, it's incredibly moving to know that something so challenging in my life inspired something so positive in hers,” Genevieve said.

“Rather than seeing hearing loss as a limitation, she saw it as a problem that could be solved."

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