We’ve all had disasters at work, but few have experienced anything as bad as BBC news anchor Lewis Vaughan Jones.
The 41-year-old regularly presents the 5pm and 10pm bulletins – which have been seen by at least five million people – but one night in 2018, while presenting the newspaper review to a group of guests, he completely captivated his audience lose.
Many viewers would not have known that Lewis was almost completely deaf at the time and dependent on a hearing aid. And on the night in question, things suddenly went awry.
“I didn’t hear a word for twenty minutes,” the father-of-one told the Mail on Sunday.
“I managed to spill through without anyone noticing. Luckily I’m pretty good at lip-reading, but it was scary.”
IN PLAIN VIEW: Lewis Vaughan Jones presents BBC news with his white hearing aid implant clearly visible
Lewis with his wife, former CNN news anchor Hannah Vaughan Jones
Now he has revealed the amazing challenges he faces and why he fears his airtime will be limited.
Lewis is one of 12 million Britons with some form of hearing loss, but what makes the Welshman’s story so shocking is how quickly it happened to him.
In the winter of 2017, at the age of 37, he caught a cold.
“I didn’t even take a day off,” he says. “I just felt a little trapped. But I noticed that the hearing in my left ear was completely gone. I couldn’t hear my wife talking when she was on my left.
“I thought it would go away, but after a few days it didn’t and I started to worry.”
Lewis visited his GP and a month later a specialist who gave him a cruel diagnosis. “He took one look and said, ‘Yes, your hearing is completely gone. We can’t say what caused it, but it will probably never come back.’ ‘
Devastatingly, they also discovered problems with his right ear.
Subsequent research suggested it was likely due to a severe case of sticky ear – a common childhood condition that causes the ear canal to fill with fluid – which Lewis suffered from when he was five years old.
“The tissue in my right eardrum was paper thin and starting to collapse, although I could still hear,” he says.
“I just assumed medicine had an answer for hearing loss, but there wasn’t.”
Doctors say anyone experiencing sudden hearing loss should go straight to the emergency room. Steroid medication given within seven days can prevent permanent damage. Lewis was late for that option, so he got a hearing aid.
In the winter of 2017, Lewis caught a cold at the age of 37. “I didn’t even take a day off,” he says. “I just felt a little trapped. But I noticed that the hearing in my left ear was completely gone. I couldn’t hear my wife talking when she was on my left.” Pictured: Lewis with wife Hannah
Lewis, who is married to former CNN anchor Hannah Vaughan Jones, says he immediately turned his attention to his career. “I need two ears to read the news: my right ear to hear the producers through headphones and my left ear to hear the guys in the studio. I know my first concern should have been for my family, but my reaction was, “God, I’m going to lose my job.” ‘
Lewis praises the BBC’s efforts to solve its problems.
“We developed a system where the sound from the studio is picked up by a microphone and played through the headphones in my right ear. It wasn’t perfect – it was a cacophony of voices in one ear, all speaking at once – but it made a big difference.”
It also meant that Lewis had to warn studio guests that he couldn’t hear them. “The studio sound wasn’t beamed into my headphones until the show started,” he says, “so if someone was sitting next to me before we went live, I’d say, ‘I’m sure you’re interesting and wonderful, but I hear you not a word of what you say.”
Lewis’ hearing loss was exacerbated by another symptom: a constant ringing in his ears known as tinnitus. “I had endless whining in my ears,” he says. “I couldn’t rule it out. I have never felt so alone.’
After his doctor’s visit, Lewis was told that he would need surgery to insert a permanent hearing implant. The pandemic delayed the surgery, but he got a bone-anchored hearing aid on the left side of his head last February. It involves a small device implanted in the skull that sends sound vibrations to the inner ear, where they are converted into sounds that the brain can understand.
Lewis says: “I was only in hospital for a day. I had very little pain and all I had was a bump behind my ear.”
A month later, he had a white plastic casing fitted – easily visible on television – with a microphone that picks up sounds and sends them to the implant. Then turn on the device. He says: “It was day and night. For the first time in a long time I heard the murmur of conversation around me.
“The strangest thing was leaving the doctor’s office. I could hear my footsteps and it sounded so loud that I apologized to the people in the area for the speed.”
Lewis praises the BBC’s efforts to solve its problems. “We developed a system where the sound from the studio is picked up by a microphone and played through the headphones in my right ear. It wasn’t perfect – it was a cacophony of voices in one ear, all talking at once – but it made a huge difference.”
Lewis still relies on his right ear for work – the studio sound is channeled into his ear bud. He adds: “Before I got the implant, I couldn’t hear what was going on around me. It was really separate and you feel stupid not following the conversation. Now I am more aware of what is being said.’
But life is far from perfect. “The implant only works well if you are close to someone and you can’t have too much background noise. So noisy bars and other noisy events are now out of my life.’
Hearing in his right ear is also deteriorating and will probably eventually make him completely deaf.
“If it continues to get worse, I will also need an implant in my right ear,” he says. “Maybe it’s not enough to keep me working for the next few years or even months.”
Experts say cases like Lewis’ are on the rise.
The Royal National Institute for Deaf People estimates that the number of adults with hearing loss in the UK will increase to 14.2 million by 2035. This is partly due to an aging population, but according to Lidia Best of the National Association Of Deafened People, they are losing their hearing.
“This is mainly caused by people listening to music at unsafe levels through headphones,” she says.
Lewis says he has received many messages from parents of deaf children who have seen him on TV.
“They are all so excited to see someone like her presenting the news,” he says.
“That’s why the implant I have is white. I wanted it to be noticeable so that people with hearing aids know they are not alone.”
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
