WALTERBORO, S.C. (WCSC) - A Walterboro woman is getting a small device that's making a big impact in her life and a community partnership is making it happen.
It's a big day for 26-year-old Carlise Washington. The Walterboro native who loves basketball and bowling is able to hear again.
"She was excited about getting hearing aids," Carlise's mother, Barbara Washington, said.
Ever since Carlise was little, she's had difficulty hearing. Her doctors confirmed the news to her parents.
"Because she has Down syndrome, we knew she would just point and my husband would say, 'What do you want?' You know. But she would just point and we thought she just had selective hearing," Barbara said.
It wasn't until Carlise got into the fifth grade that she got hearing aids.
Throughout her life, Carlise has communicated using sign language and relied on hearing aids and her mother-turned-caregiver. But when she aged out of Medicaid coverage, things got complicated. Carlise didn't have the same hearing support services she got while she was in school and her devices were outdated.
"She hasn't had hearing aids since like -- good hearing aids since 18, since she was 18. I know how much her first ones cost, like $5,000. So I said, wow. So we just signed and talked very loudly," Barbara said.
So the Washingtons turned to the Miracle-Ear Foundation's Gift of Sound program. The group gives hearing aids and lifetime aftercare free of charge to lower-income families who've exhausted all other options for hearing health. Now Carlise is reaping the benefits.
"It came down to she was a candidate and a perfect person for the foundation. We got her established with it and today, we're able to give her a set of hearing aids to change her life," Jennifer Stockley, a Miracle-Ear hearing instrument specialist, said.
The small device is making a big impact that Carlise and Barbara are not taking for granted.
The Washingtons are now paying it forward. Barbara says she is donating funds to cover another applicant's fee for the Miracle-Ear Foundation. She also got her sister, their mother and the church to do the same.