--- title: Deaf Woman Hears for First Time Cochlear Implants Viral Video description: 40-year-old Joe Milne hears for the very first time canonical: https://time.com/41427/watch-the-emotional-moment-a-40-year-old-deaf-woman-hears-for-the-first-time/ author: Jessica Roy article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-28T11:43:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:08:17.243Z og:title: Watch the Emotional Moment a 40-Year-Old Deaf Woman Hears for the First Time og:description: We can't even imagine what this must have felt like og:url: https://time.com/41427/watch-the-emotional-moment-a-40-year-old-deaf-woman-hears-for-the-first-time/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch the Emotional Moment a 40-Year-Old Deaf Woman Hears for the First Time twitter:description: We can't even imagine what this must have felt like twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch the Emotional Moment a 40-Year-Old Deaf Woman Hears for the First Time by [Jessica Roy](/author/jessica-roy/) ## Jessica Roy Mar 28, 2014 11:43 AM CUT by [Jessica Roy](/author/jessica-roy/) ## Jessica Roy Mar 28, 2014 11:43 AM CUT Joanne Milne has been deaf since birth due to a condition called Ushers Syndrome. She was fitted with cochlear implants, and her friend Tremayne recorded this video of the first time they were switched on and uploaded it to YouTube. We dare you not to cry. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/41427/watch-the-emotional-moment-a-40-year-old-deaf-woman-hears-for-the-first-time/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/41427/watch-the-emotional-moment-a-40-year-old-deaf-woman-hears-for-the-first-time/"},"headline":"Watch the Emotional Moment a 40-Year-Old Deaf Woman Hears for the First Time","datePublished":"2014-03-28T11:43:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:08:17.243Z","description":"We can't even imagine what this must have felt like","url":"https://time.com/41427/watch-the-emotional-moment-a-40-year-old-deaf-woman-hears-for-the-first-time/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","health","Hearing"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jessica Roy","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/jessica-roy/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/41427/watch-the-emotional-moment-a-40-year-old-deaf-woman-hears-for-the-first-time/","name":"Watch the Emotional Moment a 40-Year-Old Deaf Woman Hears for the First Time"}}]}] ```