Eureka teen wins hearing aids

Eureka’s DaySha Brown couldn’t believe her ears when she got the call: she had won a pair of custom hearing aids courtesy of the Hearing Aid Institute of Kalispell.

The 17-year-old high school senior had hearing issues beginning in early childhood, prompting a reconstructive surgery when she was just 4 years old.

By the time she was about 12, Brown began noticing pain in her ears and fluid draining from the left side. When she went in for a sports physical, Brown’s doctor told her something was seriously wrong.

“I had little black dots all over the inner ear and they were tumors that were filled with cancer,” she said. “So, I had to have two surgeries to remove those.”

She received a pair of hearing aids as a high school freshman, but when her home caught fire last summer, the hearing aids went with it.

Brown wasn’t home at the time of the blaze, but she wasn’t of her parents’ whereabouts.

“I didn’t really care about the house or anything I just cared that my mom was alright,” she said.

Thankfully, the Browns were safe.

Their belongings were a different story.

“We had gotten a brand new 2014 Nissan and it was right next to the house when the house started on fire, so that exploded,” Brown said. “We lost our older Buick — and then we lost everything else.”

The family rebuilt their home, but Brown went without hearing aids for over a year — that is, until she unknowingly entered a hearing aid drawing at the Northwest Montana Fair and won herself a new pair.

Brown stopped by the institute’s booth while looking for her mother and filled out what she thought was a form for information on custom ear plugs.

“I love to swim but I can’t because water gets in my ears and it hurts my ears so bad that I almost pass out — one time I actually did get knocked out and I almost drowned,” Brown said.

In reality, the document was an entry form for the company’s hearing-aid raffle.

Out of 120 entrants, Brown was the lucky winner of a custom set of NuEar hearing aids.

She was initially confused when the institute called to tell her she won, but that later morphed into gratitude.

“I didn’t really notice how bad I was until I got hearing aids and could hear again,” Brown said. “It allows me to hear people better and feel better about myself because I don’t have to ask people constantly, over and over again what they said.”

The institute presented the Lincoln County High School student with her new instruments last Friday, but they may not be the last hearing aids she receives from the Hearing Aid Institute of Kalispell.

An examination by hearing specialist Don Van De Riet revealed scar-tissue build-up in both of her ears, which may mean an additional surgery for Brown. If the surgery is a go, Van De Riet said he’ll fit her with different aids, free of charge.

“We’ll be doing it again next year,” Van De Riet said of the fair raffle. “It’s great to see somebody in need that gets the hearing aids. I would say she’s the youngest one we’d had win it in several years.”

Reporter Mackenzie Reiss may be reached at 758-4433 or mreiss@dailyinterlake.com.