"Whoa," 12-year-old Jeanie said. "Right now, I feel like I’m sweating."

Jeanie had the Baha sound processor, a small box, attached to an abutment on her head in the audiology department at the Aurora Sheboygan Clinic.

"Jeanie, can you hear me?" asked her mother, Marcia Reinthaler.

Jeanie just shook her head yes and started to cry as she hugged her mother.

Jeanie has congenital hearing loss and has undergone 12 surgeries in an attempt to fix the problem, Marcia Reinthaler said. Doctors have tried to replace the bone in both of Jeanie’s ears and she has tried conventional hearing aids as well.

"What’s the first thing you want to hear?" her mother asked.

"Birds," Jeanie said.

Jeanie underwent surgery at Aurora Sheboygan Memorial Medical Center in April when Dr. P. Perry Phillips mounted a titanium screw into her skull behind her left ear. It was the first surgery of its kind performed in Sheboygan County. Jeanie had to wait three months to heal from surgery before putting the sound processor on. The box snaps onto an abutment to the screw and can be removed and put back on at will.

Kristin Nytes, a clinical audiology doctor, showed Jeanie’s parents how to put on and take off the device. They were later joined by Phillips in a small examination room at the clinic.

"Hey there, how are you doing kiddo?" Phillips asked. "Oh, I like it. Was it kind of strange?"

"Yes," Jeanie said.

"It’s going to take some getting used to," Phillips said.

Phillips whispered numbers behind Jeanie’s back and she repeated them to prove the device was working.

"I’m glad that it’s over and she can finally hear clearly," said her father, Thomas Reinthaler. "It’s beyond words."

The only drawback is that insurance companies won’t cover the cost of surgery and the device, because it’s considered a hearing aid, Marcia Reinthaler said.

That left them with about $15,000 in out-of-pocket expenses to pay, Nytes said. However, the Sheboygan community has given generously to a special bank fund since April and the Reinthalers’ bill is almost paid in full. They now are considering whether to keep the bank account open and use donations to help others who need the same surgery.

"I’m really happy that I went through it," Jeanie said.

Without the processor, sounds are muffled, Jeanie said. She wants others with similar hearing problems to have the same advantage she has.

"If people have this, I think they’ll find a whole new life and a new world," Jeanie said. "They’ll experience new stuff and new sounds that they’ve never heard."

By Troy Laack, Sheboygan Press staff