An 85-year-old Canton man who lost his hearing after he suffered a stroke is now able to hear again after being chosen to receive free hearing aids.
Beltone Hearing Care Foundation selected Dominick LaCaruba to receive care for free after receiving a letter from him explaining his severe hearing loss after he suffered a stroke.
After writing the letter to the foundation, LaCaruba was set on a journey to hear clearly for the first time in years.
“I had a stroke years ago, nothing that damaged my brain or movement, but I don’t know whether that did anything to my hearing. When it goes gradually, you don’t remember it,” LaCaruba said.
In his letter, LaCaruba said that he avoids going to family gatherings altogether because of his hearing problem.
“I’m constantly saying ‘what did he or she say or can you repeat that.’ When the television is blaring and if I have company, I have to turn it down or off,” he wrote the foundation. “When I speak to my grandchildren on the phone, it’s hard to hear them. I keep asking them to repeat what they said.
He said they used to call three to four times a week; now they call maybe once or twice a week.
“I’m thinking it’s due to my telling them to repeat what they said. I hope not,” LaCaruba wrote.
LaCaruba has severe hearing loss and had no financial ability to be able to afford new hearing aids.
“Beltone reached out to me — not me individually, but they sent out letters that they were giving free hearing aid tests so I came down and had the test,” he said. “I couldn’t afford the hearing aids.”