Foxy Brown Will Not Be Released for Cochlear Repair
Tuesday January 29, 2008
Foxy Brown, a deafened rapper with a cochlear implant who is in prison, will not be released to get her implant repaired. Imprisoned in New York, she had requested a release so she could travel to California to get medical care. Brown and her lawyers had argued that her hearing would get worse if she didn't get the implant repaired and reprogrammed.
Her request was denied on the grounds she could get services locally in New York. Was there any truth to Brown's argument? Is it possible to receive a cochlear implant in one location, then get services for it in another location? Time also seems to be a factor in the denial; based on some research I did, it looks like Brown received her implant in late 2005.
Just a few of the news articles about Brown:
Comments
I think she was just taking advantage of the situation in an attempt to get out of jail. Who can blame her? I’m sure many of us deafies have tried to take advantage of our situation to get out of unpleasant things.
Of course she can get it worked on anywhere. A CI is just like any other hearing aid device, nothing special and no mystery. If the Dr. uses the brand, and knows it, they fix it. If we were “tethered” to our audiologist, we’d never be able to move! You just pick a new Dr. in your new location that knows the brand. If insurance tries to make an issue of it, then that’s an insurance special case that should be fought.
wow, nice about.com layout! much more professional… and less ads!
many thanks to whoever made the adjustments.
This is interesting. As an advocate, first thing came to my mind… is she getting accessible services while in prison? If not, she probably thinks getting the cochlear implants repaired would solve the problem. I wont be surprised that the dept of corrections isnt accomodating her at all. If I were her lawyer, Id argue for them to accomodate my client or send her to get the cochlear implant repaired. I am sure the prison would rather that she gets her implant repaired instead to spend thousands of dollars of interpreters!
Please be aware that I have a cochlear implant and have traveled all over the U.S. and you can get it repaired and reprogramed in your area. However, sometimes there may not be one or a good one near you. I live in Chicago and there are only five places that can do it because it is specially trained staff and software that has to be used. It is not a hearing aid at all and it must be reprogrammed by an authorized Chochlear or Bionics audiologist. House of Ear in CA is the best in the world and that is probably where she got it. This is not an excuse, it really seems to be true because you can’t hear without it or it corrupts your ability to hear and get frustrated.
We got my daughter’s cochlear implant (by cochlear; its a Nucleus) at UCLA. We moved, and she gets it reprogrammed at her school or Hershey Medical Center in PA. There are plenty of good qualified implant centers in NY that could repair the device.