Roger Hernandez

Photo: Laura Dickinson

All his life, Roger Hernandez has worked in loud places: oilfields and kitchens.

“I’m a cook,” he told us, “so with the sound of the vents, dishes being put down, people screaming, it gets pretty loud in the kitchen.”

Over the years, the constant noise damaged his hearing.

But like a lot of people with hearing loss, Roger didn’t realize how bad it was. He kept asking his wife to repeat herself; and he kept turning up the volume on the TV.

Finally, about 10 years ago, he got hearing aids. They lasted six or seven years. But he couldn’t afford to replace them, so he went without.

It wasn’t easy. “I couldn’t hear people, machines, whatever,” Roger explained.

Finally he took his old hearing aids to the Morro Bay Hearing Aid Center to see if he could get them fixed. The technician told him they were so outdated that they couldn’t do their job.

But Roger couldn’t afford new ones. So audiologist Gretchen Daulman helped him fill out an application for help from LSH and sent it in. “I wasn’t keeping my hopes up,” he admitted.

Much to his surprise, he was quickly approved, and he was able to get new hearing aids.

“They’ve made such a huge difference,” Roger says. “I’m able to hear the birds outside, and distant conversations I could never hear before. I can have a conversation without yelling and screaming.”

And on the job, “I can hear people in the kitchen. If someone needs an order right away, I can hear them.

“I’m just grateful that you folks were able to help me.”