Irene Taylor Brodsky is the daughter of this elderly couple, and she decided to make a documentary that follows her parents progress with the new cochlear implant system. She accurately portrays the steps to prepare for the surgery such as medical examinations, audiology testing, and consultations. The surgery for implantation is around three hours in which the processor is placed underneath the skin on the temporal bone of the skull. Both patients had their operations on different days and Sally decided to go first. It is required that the implant is not turned on for a month so that the body can heal form the swelling due to surgery. This is a long and often emotional month to wait, but somehow one manages to get through.

After a month, both Paul and Sally each have their implants turned on to the mysterious world of sound. This process of “being turned on” is called Mapping. The audiologist turns on the implant gradually with ease so that the patient is not overwhelmed by what they hear. Every few months the audiologist turns the implant up more and more, until it reaches full potential. For Paul and Sally the sounds are there but not quite intelligible, because the brain is not used to being stimulated. Paul takes to the implant very well and Sally becomes so overwhelmed that she struggles. Sally’s trials with the implant last a year until she finally begins to cope with the device. Paul develops much more faster than Sally, but he does not use it all the time. Not all people develop with a cochlear implant very well after being turned on, because it is a lengthy process. A person with an older brain may not develop near as fast as a person who is young and healthy. Paul and Sally also have a very unique bond that holds them together come sound or no sound. Their love gets them through the hardest trials of getting the cochlear implant. At the end of the film, the viewer realizes that the implant has helped both of these people as individuals and it has exposed them to the sounds that people hear everyday.

With a cochlear implant comes many new sounds, new ways of communicating, and better speech. The world of silence ceases to exist as a patient awakens to a world full of sound. I can personally relate to this film because I have a cochlear implant on my right ear. I have been severely hearing impaired in both ears since the age of two, and I have worn hearing aids since. When the implant became available, I grabbed at this chance to help increase my learning. It was a hard process to go through, and I hope one day I will go through it again for my left ear. It is a fearful and emotional process because the patient does not know what to expect. What sounds will I hear? What will that sound like? Will I hear that at all? Just like Paul and Sally, I questioned the implant’s power and hoped for the best. In the end my speech improved, I heard things I never heard before, and I continue to develop as time goes on. In the future I hope to obtain a stethoscope that will enable me to use it with my cochlear implant. I use a hearing aid to balance out the sound in my left ear for now. “Hear and Now” is a great in-depth documentary that portrays those who have severe hearing problems in a light of hope. Paul and Sally are just a couple that resemble many others who are waiting in line for the only device that replaces a sense.