For 80 years, Lolly Sprague’s world was silent. Unable to hear the world around her, she felt secluded. But the silence came to an end in December [of last year] when her hearing was restored.

“It has been fantastic,” Sprague [a former resident of Andover who now lives in The Villages in Florida] said. “I hear things that I couldn’t imagine I could. Things that are probably normal, but I don’t know what normal is because I’ve never been able to hear.”

The solution to her frustration was actually a simple process.

When Sprague was two years old, she had an ear operation that resulted in the accidental removal of a small bone in her inner ear. Many more surgeries followed, and she spent thousands of dollars on hearing aids that did not solve her issue.

Finally, last October, she was told nothing could be done. “I was really discouraged and really depressed,” she said.

But then she met with Dr. Danielle Rosier, an audiologist with HearUSA. After a few tests, Rosier knew that Sprague was different from most of her patients. So she referred her new patient to an ear, nose, and throat doctor at the University of Florida with whom she had practiced while studying to be an audiologist.

Not only was Dr. Patrick Antonelli familiar with Sprague’s condition, he was one of the only doctors in the nation who could perform the surgery.

“I thought after all this time, after 80 years, that’s what it was, and there was finally someone who could fix what was wrong,” Sprague said. “All he had to do was peel my eardrum and place a titanium bone in there. I don’t know if he did it with super glue or what, but it worked.”

Following the surgery, she was a new person. She now can sit in the lanai in her Village of Amelia home and listen to the birds; she listens to traffic in the distance; and she listens to the tones of people’s voices.

But best of all, she listens to the sounds of her family. “You can see how much happier she is now,” said Ron Bierczynski, Sprague’s youngest brother. “It took 80 years for us to carry on a conversation. It’s unbelievable.”

And her family members are not the only ones who rejoiced. Rosier, who has seen fewer than a handful of cases like Sprague’s, was thrilled to be part of this life-changing event. When Sprague walked into her Brownwood office, they hugged and cried in front of a room of waiting people, Rosier recalled.

It was an inspiring moment for her. “Helen Keller once said, ‘Blindness separates people from things, hearing loss separates people from people,’” Rosier said. “It’s a huge deal when someone can’t hear. It’s life-changing.”

© 2016 The Villages Daily Sun. Reprinted with permission.