{"id":11599,"date":"2025-02-20T12:10:32","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T17:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/?p=11599"},"modified":"2025-02-20T12:10:33","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T17:10:33","slug":"uri-speech-hearing-center-specialist-gives-gift-of-hearing-to-hundreds-in-panama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/2025\/02\/20\/uri-speech-hearing-center-specialist-gives-gift-of-hearing-to-hundreds-in-panama\/","title":{"rendered":"URI Speech & Hearing Center specialist gives gift of hearing to hundreds in Panama"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sara Andreozzi and her team fit 400 people for donated hearing aids on medical mission to Central America<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a young girl was walked into a rural school in an impoverished part of Panama in January, she had never seen her mother\u2019s face or even heard her voice. Born deaf and blind in a region without adequate health care, the young girl was destined to live her life in darkness and silence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But her life changed in an instant when she met Sara Andreozzi<\/a> and her audiology team in that classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHelen Keller said, \u2018When you lose your sight, you lose track of things; when you lose your hearing, you lose track of people.\u2019 That poor little girl had neither,\u201d said Andreozzi, clinic operations specialist in the University of Rhode Island Speech & Hearing Clinics, who fit the young girl with hearing aids for the first time. \u201cHer mom was talking to her, and all of a sudden, she was startled when she heard her mother\u2019s voice for the first time. People usually think hearing aids are for older people, but then you see this child\u2019s reaction, you understand the difference they can make regardless of age. Audiology is special because we get to see those immediate results. It\u2019s really meaningful to be able to witness those reactions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The young girl was just one of 400 individuals Andreozzi and five other hearing instrument specialists fit for hearing aids during a four-day trip to Panama in January as part of a medical mission she goes on each year. Started 40 years ago by New England Volunteer Optometric Services for Humanity<\/a> to treat vision problems in Latin American countries, the mission has expanded to include general medical, dentistry, dermatology, pediatrics and audiology. Hosted by the Dorado branch of Rotary International<\/a>, the 65 health care professionals treated 3,400 people for various medical conditions over the course of four days.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThe health care system there is just broken to pieces. You can spend a long time, even up to a year, waiting for services,\u201d Andreozzi said. \u201cWhen we get there in the morning, we are immediately hit with lines of people looking for medical help that wind up and down the street. They stand out there in 100-degree heat and never complain; they\u2019re just so grateful for the help. They\u2019re joyous. Gratitude is a universal language.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volunteers pay their own way to travel to Panama and procure donated goods and equipment ahead of time. Andreozzi partners with Beltone Hearing Aids, among the largest hearing aid companies in the country, and its Hearing Care Foundation<\/a>, which donates the hearing aids, along with associated equipment, and batteries to last a year. Two additional volunteers, using  Warner Tech Care products<\/a>, accompanied Andreozzi to make ear molds on the spot for the more complex hearing losses that require a custom fit. She also worked with local nursing students, who performed lavage to clean clients\u2019 ears before being fit for the hearing aids.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Andreozzi and her team worked from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. While she ordinarily works in a more controlled setting, they worked with clients in a large, loud room with multiple exams and meetings happening at once, as well as several fans running to assuage the triple-digit heat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re drained at the end of the day, but it\u2019s a very rewarding visit. I\u2019ll be there next year, too,\u201d Andreozzi said. \u201cThe reactions keep us coming back. And I just love what I do. Every person there\u2014doctors, nurses, volunteers, translators\u2014we\u2019re all there for the common good. We just go there to help. It\u2019s a mission. It\u2019s not a religious mission; it\u2019s a medical mission. It\u2019s all to give back and to serve people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visit the URI Speech & Hearing Centers website<\/a> for more information on the services the centers offer, and to schedule an appointment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sara Andreozzi and her team fit 400 people for donated hearing aids on medical mission to Central America When a young girl was walked into a rural school in an impoverished part of Panama in January, she had never seen her mother\u2019s face or even heard her voice. Born deaf and blind in a region […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1710,"featured_media":11600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1710"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11599"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11605,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11599\/revisions\/11605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/chs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}