A woman with a rare condition that causes hearing- and vision-loss lit up when a cochlear implant was activated in one of her ears.
Rebecca Alexander, 47, from New York City, has been diagnosed with Usher syndrome, a rare genetic condition that combines both hearing loss and progressive vision loss.
As a result, Rebecca received her first cochlear implant in her right ear in 2013. While wearing her hearing aid, Rebecca had around a 28 percent discrimination rate – meaning she could only accurately repeat back what was said to her 28 percent of the time – and a 26 percent discrimination rate without.
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That procedure was a success, and Rebecca said being able to hear clearly – even though she has learned sign language – is extremely important to her, as she comes from a hearing family, and also works as a psychotherapist, listening to people speak all day.
Then, years after her first implant, Rebecca was informed that she was a candidate for a cochlear implant in her left ear, too, which was overseen by staff at New York University Langone Cochlear Implant Center.
This time, knowing what to expect, Rebecca had a friend capture the activation on video.
As Rebecca heard the implant come to life, she lit up smiling and said, “Oh, I forgot what this feels like!”
Her jaw then dropped as she declared, “It’s so weird,” as she was asked if she could hear on her left side, and whether the noise was loud or soft.
The moment took place in December 2017, but it later went viral in February 2026, when Rebecca posted the clip on social media.
The 47-year-old was quick to point out that the clip is not technically her hearing for the first time, as some might expect, but that her shock came from remembering what having the implants activated felt like, given it’s such a surreal experience.
When they are first activated, Rebecca said, people’s voices sound very robotic and monotone, and so she is required to train her brain to make voices seem more natural.
Through sharing this video, which received millions of views on TikTok and more than 150,000 likes Instagram, Rebecca hopes to educate people on her condition.
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Rebecca, author of Not Fade Away, said: “Being able to have implants to give me access to sound has been absolutely life-changing.
“I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I didn’t have access to sound this way and if I wasn’t able to relearn how to hear and to get this much access to sound.
“I can’t speak enough about how impactful it’s been for me to get cochlear implanted and to be able to get access to sounds and to even just the crispness of sounds that I had lost with my progressive hearing loss before.
“Even just hearing, for example, my dog lapping up water from the other room or being able to hear the sound of the wind.
“There’s so many small sounds, like, I remember hearing someone brushing their hair.
“At first, I couldn’t even figure it out, but then I thought, ‘That’s what it sounds like for someone to brush their hair.’
“So, these little things most of us don’t even think twice about.”
