At the Special Olympics New Zealand 2009 National Summer Games, 18 clinical professionals and audiology students tested the athletes’ hearing. On board too were three specialist Ear Nurses who brought the Mercury Energy customer sponsored van. They helped the audiology team by clearing out wax from blocked ears.
Two staff from Phonak brought the Phonak mobile hearing testing van to assist the Healthy Hearing team with the final stage of testing – a process that requires a very quiet testing room. That’s difficult to achieve in a busy venue!
During the course of the National Summer Games, the Healthy Hearing team screened the ears of 702 athletes; 358 (51%) of those screened failed the pure tone hearing screening. 122 (18.2%) had a blocked or partially blocked era canal.
Twenty-three athletes were referred for medical evaluation of their hearing and 163 (23.2%) were referred for audiological evaluation.
Mike Freeman +64 4 560 0357