PATIENT STORIES
David B.
How a Prestigious Local Lawyer Overcame His Vanity Concerns to Achieve Better Hearing and Help Thousands of Families Throughout the US
David is a highly renowned lawyer that practiced law in California for approximately 50 years, starting his career as a prosecuting attorney with one of his most landmark cases being People v. Cohen, during the Vietnam War. Upon leaving the government, he went on to run a successful litigation practice for around 20 years.
Following the adoption of his second child, David realized how much he enjoyed the life-changing and rewarding process and switched careers to adoption and surrogacy, helping approximately 3,000 families to adopt a baby across the United States.
His first experience of a hearing challenge was in 2000, when he first realized that he had to adjust his television set to a much higher volume than the rest of his family. This resulted in him visiting his physician and learning that he had an acoustic neuroma that required surgery.
Following surgery, David lost his hearing in his left ear, with his remaining hearing in his right ear continuing to diminish over time. But although he was experiencing severe hearing challenges, David was hesitant to step into hearing technology.
He recalls, “It took me time to acknowledge that to myself because of superficial views as a man and my vanity. I thought a hearing aid would impact who I am and my performance and appearance issues. I was reluctant to get a hearing aid.”
But knowing the importance of better hearing, David looked for a suitable audiologist to discuss his challenges with and discovered Dr. Greg.
“I looked around for what I saw was a suitable person to accommodate my needs as an audiologist and a professional. Someone who I could relate to, somebody who I could trust. And at some point early on found Dr. Greg. I was overwhelmed by his kindness, sensitivity, and care toward me. It was highly unusual. As a professional myself, I saw some similarities in the way we ran our practices and the services we gave our clients, because I always felt I cared way too much for my clients and even was available on weekends or at night times. And I saw that I had access to Dr. Greg the same way that I ran my practice.”
Discussing his initial concerns regarding vanity, David shared that he didn’t want to display any form of disability because of his profession, and explained how Dr. Greg understood his challenges and directed him to the hearing technology that he is wearing now and has been wearing for many years.
“As a lawyer, people look to a lawyer for their performance and I felt that’s part of the package. I didn’t want to display any sort of a disability and so I had a concern, but once Dr. Frazer directed me to the aid that I’m using now, and I’ve used it for so many years. It’s the inner ear canal device, which you do not see.”
David’s advice to those that have similar vanity concerns is, “We all to some degree have vanity issues. There’s some people, because of vanity, they let it stand in the way of pragmatism and actually delay purchasing a hearing aid, or never getting a hearing aid, because they don’t want to demonstrate to other people that they have a hearing disability, which is a sign of getting older, and I was one of those people, but only for a very short period of time. My advice is to be open-minded and visit Dr. Greg.”
David added how his relationship with Dr. Greg has evolved over the past 20 years to more of a friendship in terms of “emails re-sent back and forth and we have mutual interests. I know about his family and he knows about my family. And if he travels abroad, I knew where he’s traveled. I just find him to be extremely unique. All the years that I’ve known him, he’s always gone the extra mile and more. And I would say, as an adult, he’s probably one of the best physicians in his area, certainly the most caring, and was available. We have a stellar relationship and I wouldn’t go anywhere else.”
“I was overwhelmed by his kindness, sensitivity, and care toward me”
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