Meet OrionOrion

Every brand new parent believes that their child is perfect. I was no exception. I was fully convinced that no child ever looked so gorgeous at one-day-old. And at two-days-old, I was certain that he was the smartest baby ever to be born at Hoag Hospital. I enjoyed 48 hours of uninterrupted bliss as I held and gazed at my new little baby. Our room was quiet and we could see the ocean from the window. His father is a United States Marine Corps Officer, so my son had to feel his father’s presence from a photograph that we kept next to my hospital bed.

Over time, every parent comes to realize that no person on the planet Earth is perfect. And their child is no exception. Some children will eventually have food allergies. Others will need glasses or braces by the time they are in grade school. But for me, that realization came when my son was only three-days-old. A nurse casually whisked my son away for his Newborn Hearing Screening. In response to my slight look of alarm at being separated from my son for the first time, she said “don’t worry, everyone passes.” A few minutes later, she returned with a negative result. I was lost in shock and disbelief. But in that moment, I had my very first glimpse of real parenthood. I had to rise to become an advocate for my three-day-old, possibly imperfect, son.
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Devices and Implants

The CARE Clinic provides audiology and speech language pathology services to children from birth to adulthood, including testing to determine the degree and type of hearing loss a child may have, fitting of devices to address any hearing loss (including hearing aids, bone conduction devices and cochlear implants), and assessment of the development of listening and communication skills, especially speech and oral language. We work closely with our children’s school and therapy personnel so that we may be, effectively, one team working toward the best possible communication outcomes for children with auditory disorders.