Rachel Kurtz of Pacific Palisades was recently the subject of an article in the Los Angeles Times. The profile indicated that she got a cochlear implant two years ago. Maura Martindale with John Tracy Clinic says that Rachel was diagnosed as bilaterally profoundly deaf while an infant.. “It was amazing”, Rachel says of her implant, “I didn’t know that birds sounded differently. I didn’t know that dripping water made noise. When I sat in the kitchen, I heard the toaster and microwave making noise. l didn’t know so many things beeped.” Writer Nedra Lindsey does mention that although the implants allow her to hear noises”, she still needs “extensive training before she can clearly distinguish between sounds or understand speech. She has attended public school since second grade and although most of her friends are not “hearing-impaired”, she knows a bit of sign language, but communicates mostly by reading lips and speaking. She also participates in Girl Scout Troop No. 1096. She also developed the ‘Rachel’s Parent Handbook’ guide because she felt there “was a lack of practical information on how to raise a deaf child…”