Pittsburgh-area mom who lost her hearing receives free hearing aids

BRIDGEVILLE, Pa. (KDKA) — Losing your hearing can be devastating, especially when it's lost as a side effect of an effort to cure you of an illness.

That happened to a Pittsburgh-area woman, but now she can hear the voices of her small children all thanks to a program that allows people to hear again for free. 

When Allie Zottola walked into Hearing Life in Bridgeville with her two kids in tow as well as their grandma, as expected, it was a bit noisy. The problem was Zottola couldn't hear any of it. 

"I lost a lot of my hearing," Zottola said. 

That happened when the mother of two and soon-to-be three got very sick. 

"In my early 20s, I got a stomach infection called H. pylori and it completely wreaked havoc," she said. 

To help save her life, doctors administered medication. Her life was saved at the cost of her hearing.

"They're ototoxic meds so there are some medications that can affect your hearing," said hearing instrument specialist Jennifer Beckner.

"We determined that there was a hearing loss and it did need aided," Zottola said.

Zottola said her hearing was so bad she couldn't hear her baby crying in the night. 

"It was bad enough that if it was thundering outside, I wouldn't hear it," Zottola said.  

But paying for new hearing aids costs several thousand of dollars.

"I didn't have any insurance coverage for anything hearing-related," she said. 

That's when Beckner came to the rescue with The Campaign for Better Hearing. Beckner asked Zottola to write about her story and Beckner would submit it for the possibility of winning new hearing aids.

"When I got the email that said her name was chosen, it it was an emotional moment for both of us," Beckner said. 

After years of missing out on the sounds of her young family, Zottola got to hear them again on Thursday. 

"It's amazing. I just heard my son in the other room. I would have never been able to hear that," she said. 

"This is the best part of my job, is to be able to improve somebody's quality of life like this," Beckner said.

"I'm here. I'm all of me. All of me is here because of these," Zottola said.