By Josh Sevier, Au.D.

Crawling around in the dirt, covered from head to toe in woodland, digital camouflage, I rolled over a soon-to-be Marine suffering from heat stroke just before cleaning his arm and placing an IV line. I ice down his body to reduce his body temperature from the sweltering heat of Low Country, South Carolina, and realize his heartbeat has abruptly stopped. 

He’s stopped sweating. I gave him two deep breaths, watching the rise and fall of his chest. I have to get his heart going again. I hit the center of his sternum hard with the bottom of my fist before interlocking my fingers and starting chest compressions. The crunching of his ribcage sends a fear up my spine I’ve never felt before. 

No more than a few seconds later, his eyes open, his back arches, and he gasps for air like something seen only in horror movies. The beating of his heart fiercely returned, his breathing returning to normal, and I rolled out a profound sigh of relief, knowing he was going to be okay. That was the moment I knew my life would be dedicated to healthcare. 

From Nashville to Nebraska and Beyond

At 18 years old, I had no idea what I wanted out of life. Escaping suburban Nashville and joining the U.S. Navy seemed the most logical choice. I became a hospital corpsman (medic), and because the Navy (who wear blue uniforms) and Marine Corps (green uniforms) are both the Department of the Navy, it wasn’t long before I realized my enlistment would be spent in green. 

Following the end of my contract, the transition to civilian life proved to be more difficult than I initially thought. I started as a medical assistant at a cardiology practice during the week and at an urgent care clinic on the weekend and took college classes at night. 

But the military had served me well by providing trauma medicine skills, Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) certification, and an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) license. I became the head of cardiac stress testing at a small clinic. 

Trauma medicine and infectious disease were all that were ever on my mind. I was determined to attend medical school and do one of those two. Somehow, I managed to keep good grades and become president of several student organizations, including a fraternity. 

This is where life changed. We attended a fraternity leadership conference in New Orleans. I’m a people person and started introducing myself to everyone when a guy looked at me confusedly before using his hands to talk back. This was my first encounter with a Deaf person, and I wish I could go back to that moment now to tell myself how important it was. 

Soon after, I enrolled in an American Sign Language program and was researching careers with the deaf and hard of hearing. A Google search led me to audiology. 

I toured the two closest audiology programs at Vanderbilt University and the University of Tennessee. And then after watching a YouTube video of a cochlear implant activation, my career goals suddenly had a direction. 

Through my doctoral program at Pacific University in Oregon, I had terrific placements including at Advanced Bionics (one of the three cochlear implant manufacturers worldwide), the National Health Service in Scotland, and the University of Chicago Medicine for my externship.

My first cochlear implant job was at Boys Town National Research Hospital in Nebraska, and then I was thrilled to be recruited to start a cochlear implant program and teach at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. 

It’s there that I found I loved teaching students about cochlear implant technology. The look on their faces when things would “click” or they would solve a puzzle continues to inspire me. 

Making It Social

Using social media to help teach occurred to me one day when a patient of mine made a joke I’d heard a million times. 

“Hi there,” I asked. “What brings you to see us today?”

“Huh?” he replied, with a cheesy smile. 

I had the idea of acting out the scenario and sharing it online. Whenever I’d have a fun interaction with a patient, I’d recreate and post it. Honestly, my goal with all of it was to make people simply laugh while they were learning something. 

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought people would reply to and share these posts and videos worldwide. I tried to keep going with it by putting up lectures and relating them to actual patients with a goofy twist. 

There was a time a patient told the front desk that their cochlear implant was causing them to hear voices. They were shooed right into my office. And it was true–the implant was working correctly and the patient could hear speech–the patient just wanted to get in to see me quickly!

My profession has taken me to teach and lecture at universities and clinics across the U.S. and consult internationally. I love what I do and hope that passion comes through. The trust that patients put in a bearded guy who wears bow-ties on a daily basis and has a thick southern accent means the world and will never be taken for granted. 

Learning has always been fun for me, and I aim to share that excitement with others. It's rewarding when practicing audiologists and students alike tell me how much they enjoy my social posts at conferences.

From resolving issues for patients who have had implants for years to advising families navigating new diagnoses for their children, I’m thankful to be doing what I am doing—helping people. I also am happy I can use social media to reach a wide audience to share insights and behind the scenes in order to educate and create awareness about hearing loss, cochlear implants, and other technology and treatments. Come find me on my socials!

Josh Sevier, Au.D., LL.M., is an audiologist and clinical program manager in Chicago. HHF connected with him and you can too over social media at instagram.com/hearingdocjosh and tiktok.com/@hearingdocjosh.

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