Walter Vidal Contreras Robles sat excitedly in the small waiting room of UNLV’s otolaryngology clinic with a bright smile on his face the morning of May 30.

It was his 37th birthday, and instead of wishing for some new clothes or a nice dinner, Contreras was about to receive the gift of a lifetime — the ability to hear from both ears again. He was having his cochlear implant activated a month after it was surgically inserted.

“I wanted it to be (May 30) because it’s going to be the day where I’m going to be complete with both my ears and it’s going to feel like a special day because it’s my birthday,” Contreras said while sitting inside the UNLV Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic off South Rainbow Boulevard. “It’s more like a day to remember; it’s something big to me.”

Dr. Matthew Ng performs more than 50 cochlear implant procedures annually at UNLV’s otolaryngology clinic, according to Dr. Megan Masterson, an audiologist at the facility who treated Contreras.

In 2023, Contreras began researching cochlear implants but faced financial obstacles because the cost of the devices, surgery and rehabilitation can reach thousands of dollars. To afford the treatment, he had to leave his job and qualify for government medical assistance.

But the risk was worth it: He had struggled with hearing loss for two decades, unable to communicate with his children and facing limited job prospects.

Contreras received his first cochlear implant in his left ear. 30, with the activation occurring Oct. 28, when the internal magnet was calibrated to work with the external device worn around the ear.

His second implant was surgically placed in his right ear April 21, and he specifically requested that Masterson schedule his activation appointment to coincide with his 37th birthday. Masterson, who has worked with Contreras for approximately a year, described him as a “rock star” throughout his rehabilitation sessions.

“I wish every patient I had was like him,” Masterson said of Contreras. “He understands, he researches, he understands that it takes time (to heal), he understands the process and he’s putting in the work.”

Contreras wears his cochlear implant approximately 16 hours daily, from when he wakes up until bedtime, which has accelerated his process of relearning how to hear. He has compiled a list of activities he wants to pursue now that he has restored hearing in both ears. Within just two weeks of receiving his left implant, Contreras was already taking phone calls and revisiting music from the 1990s that he had enjoyed before his hearing loss.

The cochlear implants have already improved Contreras’ life in ways he didn’t imagine.

He has become more socially active, spending time with friends, enjoying music and choosing phone calls over video conversations. In March, Contreras experienced a milestone when he had a complete conversation with his father during a visit — something he described as happening for “the first time in a really, really long time” and feeling “really good.”

Looking ahead, Contreras is excited about deeper conversations with his brothers, meeting new people and attending movies without relying on closed captions. He emphasized how meaningful it is to laugh simultaneously with other moviegoers instead of delayed reactions after reading subtitles.

He also anticipates pursuing better employment opportunities and strengthening relationships with his children, with whom communication had been challenging even during their regular video calls.

‘How we connect with the world around us’

The World Health Organization projects that by 2050, nearly 2.5 billion people will have some degree of hearing loss and 700 million will need hearing rehabilitation. More than 50 million Americans have some degree of hearing loss, according to the Hearing Loss Association of America.

Loss of hearing can be due to several reasons, including aging, being around loud noises, head trauma, genetics and repeated infections in the ear.

Hearing loss and deafness can affect many aspects of life, limiting a person’s communication and speech as well as their access to education and employment, like Contreras experienced.

“Our hearing is how we connect with the world around us — our relationships, our work and our social well-being can all be affected,” said Barbara Kelley, executive director of the Hearing Loss Association of America in a news release for Better Hearing Month in May. “We want to remind the millions of us who now have hearing loss to get not only treatment for our ears but also support to stay connected in life.”

Unlike a hearing aid, which amplifies sound for damaged ears to detect, part of the cochlear implant is surgically installed to directly stimulate the auditory nerve and bypass damaged parts of the ear, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The FDA approved cochlear implants in the mid-1980s to treat hearing loss in adults and, as of 2020, it has been cleared for use in eligible children 9 months or older.

It’s estimated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that over 118,000 devices have been implanted in adults and 65,000 in children.

Contreras grew up in Las Vegas with normal hearing until he relocated as a teenager to a small coastal town in Jalisco, Mexico.

He said he experienced recurring ear infections that went largely untreated due to limited access to medical care. He attributes these infections to his regular exposure to saltwater from frequent ocean swimming.

The untreated infections progressively damaged his hearing throughout his teens, with the most severe deterioration occurring around age 16 or 17.

By that time, his hearing had declined dramatically to just 10% capacity in his left ear and 15% in his right ear. The hearing loss was so severe that he could no longer distinguish words clearly and had to depend on lip reading to communicate.

Contreras said he had to drop out of high school in Mexico due to difficulties with learning that resulted from a lack of disability accommodations. At 19, he moved back to Las Vegas and began work in a warehouse, where Contreras said he drove forklifts and loaded conveyor belts.

That job gave him the health insurance that allowed him to get checked by an audiologist, who told him he was deaf and that hearing aids wouldn’t even work because his hearing loss had become so severe.

Contreras, desperate for any change, insisted on still trying the hearing aids. He wore them for 15 years, and while his hearing did improve, Contreras was still forced to read lips and continued to struggle with his communication.

The hearing loss created significant barriers in his personal relationships across two marriages because he struggled to communicate effectively with both his children and spouses, he said.

His hearing impairment also hindered his career prospects, as he found it challenging to secure new employment due to his inability to hear properly during job interviews.

He felt his warehouse job wouldn’t promote him for fear that his deafness could be an extra risk for injury, he said.

Then, after 15 years, Contreras had lost one of his hearing aids and broken the other within a year of each other. That was his final push to consider cochlear implants, a small and complex electronic device that can provide sound to severely hard-of-hearing people and those with profound deafness.

But, now, those worries have subsided — all thanks to the UNLV clinic.

“The main reason why I wanted to get the implants was so I could improve my quality of life,” Contreras said. “A lot of things I missed out on in the past, I feel like I’m slowly picking up a little bit more. I just feel like everything is improving a lot, but my main goal right now is to find a good job, get back on my feet (and) just improve everything that I lacked in before.”