Tiffany Yates
Blessing Foundation Inc




Gift of hearing gives woman a new beginning and a career in health care

Read on to see how Blessing Foundation donors changed the life of a student with a significant hearing impairment
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Tiffany Yates wanted to become a radiologic technologist, but her hearing loss was impeding her ability to reach her dream.

The Blessing Foundation allowed Tiffany to get the hearing aids she needed to finish her education and start her career.

For 40 years, Tiffany Yates did what she needed to compensate for a hearing impairment. She rates her natural hearing as a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being deaf.

Tiffany got her first set of hearing aids at age 6. Hearing aids and lip reading improved her hearing to what she rated as a 7, allowing her to hold jobs as a certified nursing assistant and a corrections officer.
 
But every day she would wonder. 

“I was always wondering if I caught everything and heard things properly,” Tiffany recalls. “Always questioning and looking for clarification. Trying to keep up with everyone else.”

‘She was not catching everything’


A strong and driven person, in 2018 Tiffany decided to continue her education, enrolling with a Blessing Health System educational program to learn about the career she had wanted since high school, a radiologic technologist. 

Tiffany made it to nearly the end of the two-year program when she had a clinical rotation in surgery where everyone wears masks and lip reading was impossible.
 
Crystal Neff, clinical instructor, Blessing Hospital School of Radiologic Technology, was contacted by the radiologic technologist overseeing Tiffany’s clinical experience in surgery, who described their concern about her ability to hear properly.
 
“I went to observe Tiffany’s work myself after getting the call and, while we knew she had hearing aids, they did not seem to be working for her any longer,” Crystal said. “She was not catching everything.”
 
Even though she was wearing hearing aids purchased from a non-medical retailer, and she knew they weren’t working as well as she needed them to work, Tiffany did not expect to be called to Crystal’s office.
 
“I was kind of shocked,” Tiffany said. “I didn’t think it was bad enough for people to notice.”

Tiffany Yates
‘It was our duty to help Tiffany’
 
Knowing Tiffany was a student on a tight budget, Crystal asked if she could contact the Blessing Foundation on Tiffany’s behalf and see if there was anything that could be done to help her. Tiffany welcomed the offer and Ann Awerkamp Dickson, administrative director of the Foundation, was on board enthusiastically, too.
 
“I felt it was our duty to help Tiffany,” Ann said. “She came to Blessing to become a successful radiologic technologist. We needed to give her all the tools to do that. It was the right thing to do.”
 
Donors to the Foundation provided the funds, which allowed Tiffany to be examined by an ear, nose and throat specialist to rule out any diseases that could be affecting her hearing, and then by an audiologist for extensive hearing testing. She was fitted with hearing aids that were fine-tuned to her individual need.


‘I thank everyone who had a part in this’  

“I am hearing noises I have never heard before. It was kind of overwhelming at first,” she said. “I can hear people behind me. I can hear people around the corner from me. I can hear better on the phone.” 
 
With her new hearing aids, she rates her hearing a 10.

Tiffany graduated from the Blessing Hospital School of Radiologic Technology and was hired by an area medical office.
 
“I am grateful,” Tiffany said of the support from donors to the Blessing Foundation. “It has made quite an impact on my life. I thank everyone who had a part in this.”


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