Sometimes a single day can make such a difference that your life is never the same. One Spartanburg man spent the past 30 years with profound hearing loss.
Now he’ll spend the rest of his life listening to what he’s been missing all thanks to a program that helps people in need.
Adapting to silence has been a way of life for Darian Lattimore, until now.
Lattimore’s hearing care practitioner, James Porter had an idea that is becoming a new reality shot for the 30-year-old man.
“Darian and his mother came to us about a month and a half ago, and we did the testing on him and tried to get him fixed with the hearing aids but they couldn’t afford them, they were perfect candidates for the foundation, so I signed them up for the foundation, and they were almost immediately approved for it,” said Porter.
The Beltone Hearing Care Foundation is footing the 63-hundred dollar bill for these state of the art hearing aids.
“He got the highest level of technology that we have,” said Porter.
The foundation started only 2 years ago. And so far has fit more than 900 people with hearing aids. It also provides lifetime care for the devices.
“It’s going to open up a new world for him, I know he’s going to be excited to wear the new hearing aids wherever he goes, and he’s going to hear birds singing and dogs barking, laugh,” said Dormida Lattimore, Darian’s mother.
Porter says when Darian was first tested, he had tears in his eyes when he heard the world for the first time. Now, as he prepares to take his new hearing aids home, he’s all smiles.
And when asked if he could hear, Lattimore replied with a thumbs up “It’s good, it’s good.”
His mother, is grateful the foundation has given her son a gift their family would never have been able to afford.
So what’s the first thing he’ll do?
Watch a movie without subtitles. His mother asked him what movie and he said “The Rock.”
There are many foundations that help low-income people with special needs. Here are a few more:
