I had two patients who had rattlesnake run ins in the same hiking area near Golden, Colorado. Both came to me and purchased their first hearing aids for the same reason–they could not hear the rattlesnake rattle rattling!
In one situation the patient had been on a hike and was about 3 steps from a rattlesnake that was sunning itself on the trail. He said the snake coiled itself up and raised its head in a defensive posture. He could see the rattle shaking vigorously, but heard no sound coming from the snake. He was perplexed because he could hear many other sounds without difficulty, but the snake was completely silent.
He came to see me immediately after the incident and explained that his wife was complaining he could not understand her and thought he needed hearing aids, but he had not thought up to that point he had a problem. After testing him and finding normal low frequency hearing with a high frequency hearing loss, he inquired about what frequency a rattle snake rattles and related the previous story.
His hearing loss correlated exactly with the audio frequency of the rattlesnake, which also correlated with many speech clarity sounds and higher pitch voices of his wife, daughters and grandchildren.
The second case was very similar, only the patient was hiking with his dog. The dog got very agitated and was barking at something in the brush next to the trail. The dog then went into the brush and shortly after began yipping. When the man got a hold of the dog he said he could see a small bit of blood coming from two small holes between its eyes. He rushed the dog to the vet and fortunately, the vet recognized the symptoms of a rattlesnake bite and the dog was saved. Again the man never heard the rattle or any indication of a snake. He had a very similar hearing loss as the previously mentioned patient.
Both purchased Receiver-in-Canal or RIC hearing aids designed specifically for high frequency hearing loss. Both reported they could hear and understand their spouse better, but expressed some frustration that they no longer had an excuse for not completing there honey-do list.
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