The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Reporter

acadet@tribunemedia.net

ATTEMPTING to communicate via sign language with a hearing impaired playmate as a child was what first sparked Dr Deborah Mackey-Nubirth’s interest in the hearing healthcare profession.

She became so fascinated with the experience that she knew right there and then that she would one day be a teacher for the deaf.

Dr Mackey-Nubirth’s career as an audiologist got its start in 1987 when she was selected from among the teaching staff at the Centre for the Deaf to study audiology. She said at that time the Bahamas did not have an audiologist and all audiological services had to done abroad.

She later earned her Master’s degree in Audiology from the University of Northern Colorado. At the time it was the highest degree required in this field of study. Following that, for the next year she worked at the Eastern Oklahoma Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and returned home in 1991, thereby becoming the Bahamas’ audiologist.

“I realised it was the profession I had always been destined to do. It chose me and I love it. I am a doctor of audiology and my job is to identify, diagnose and manage persons who have hearing loss or hearing related disorders,” said Dr Mackey-Nubirth.

With an office located in the Comprehensive Family Medical Walk-in Clinic on Poinciana Drive (Wilmac Building), Dr Mackey-Nubirth offers a full range of audiological services for patients from age three and up. These services includes school/employment hearing screenings; comprehensive hearing evaluation; tinnitus evaluations; high-frequency monitoring of patients on ototoxic medications; hearing aid sales; selection, programming and fitting, custom musicians plugs and noise protection, as well as management of persons with hearing loss, and group hearing screenings.

Two features unique to her clinic are the mobile audiology programme, where she goes into the home or office of those who would like audiology services but cannot or do not want to attend the clinic, and her Family Island services, where she helps those who cannot travel to Nassau.

“I believe in the high standard and quality of hearing care services I offer to the Bahamian population. The thing I like most about the field of audiology is the overwhelming joy I get when a patient who has been struggling with their lack of hearing for years finally comes in to be properly tested and fitted for hearing aids. Who, upon their return for their two-week follow up, says to me, ‘I cannot believe how much I have been missing. If I knew it was going to be like this, I would have gotten my hearing aids years ago!’ It gives me a great level of satisfaction to hear that,” said the mother of three.

She believes more Bahamians need to know and learn the importance of good hearing and how not hearing well can affect every other area of life – the physical, mental, emotional, social and intellectual.

Dr Mackey-Nubirth noted that the Bahamas still has a long way to go in the field of hearing healthcare.

“Currently, there is no audiologist on staff at any of the government medical facilities, including the Princess Margaret Hospital. The Centre for the Deaf is also currently without an audiologist on staff, which means even those who need audiological services and management the most are without it. The Bahamas is without an early infant hearing screening programme, which means we fail in identifying our infants with hearing loss early and thus they are not receiving the management they need to ensure the development of proper communication skills. This deficit/delay in turn may lead to our children not only failing in school but also in life,” she said.

Dr Mackey-Nubirth said better hearing healthcare in the Bahamas is needed in a big way.

She cautioned that those persons who have a hearing loss and are in search of purchasing amplification devices, whether they are doing so online or from someone else, should only be fitted with a hearing aid after having a proper diagnostic hearing evaluation by a certified audiologist.

“Purchasing a hearing device without a proper hearing test and then being fit by someone who is not trained in the field of audiology could result in the device causing more damage to your hearing. Please avoid such purchases,” said Dr Mackey-Nubirth.

For more information, Dr Mackey-Nubirth can be contacted at phone numbers 356-2276 or 677-6627.