After 50+ years, a Michigan man finally hears the world in full

NORTON SHORES, Mich. — After more than five decades relying on outdated, painful technology just to hear the world around him, a Michigan man is finally experiencing sound in a way he never has before.

Michael Toney, 54, spent most of his life using a bulky, body-worn hearing device connected by a cord to a headband — a system so old, even modern audiologists had only seen it in textbooks.

But now, thanks to a new bone-conduction device and a team of determined specialists, Toney says everything has changed.

“The new hearing aid is remarkable,” Toney said. “I’m hearing things I never heard before…hearing a pin drop, my dog’s nails on the floor…it really is a big game changer.”

Toney was born without ear canals, meaning traditional hearing aids were never an option. Instead, sound had to be delivered directly to the hearing nerve through bone vibration, something older technology could do, but in a far more cumbersome way.

For decades, that meant wires, repairs, and constant workarounds.

“It was like a treasure hunt just to keep it going,” said audiologist Peggy Simon, who first met Toney when he was just 15 years old.

At one point, Toney’s device was literally shocking him on the job due to worn-out parts and electrical exposure in a factory setting.

“I was either getting shocked or I couldn’t hear anything,” Toney said.

When replacement parts became nearly impossible to find, Simon and her team knew they had to find a modern solution.

Enter Dr. Lindsay Koberna, a newer audiologist who helped identify a breakthrough: a bone-conduction hearing system that bypasses the ear entirely and sends sound straight to the nerve.

“It’s kind of incredible to see where the field started, to where we are now,” Koberna said.

The device sits behind the ear, sometimes attached with a small adhesive or headband, and works by vibrating the bone, allowing Toney to hear using a fully functioning hearing nerve.

For the first time in his life, that meant something else, too: stereo sound.

“When we put a second one on him, that’s probably the first time he’s ever heard in stereo,” Simon said.

The moment was emotional for everyone in the room.

“We all cried,” Simon said.

Now, everyday moments feel brand new.

“I stepped outside and I was hearing birds a lot clearer,” Toney said. “It’s overwhelming.”

But beyond the sounds themselves, Toney says it’s about something bigger — connection.

“If you lose your hearing, you’re missing the bigger picture of life,” he said. “The little things matter.”

Simon, who has spent more than 40 years in the field, said stories like Toney’s are why she does the work.

“We don’t feel like we’re just fitting hearing aids,” she said. “We feel that we are changing lives.”

And for Toney, that life now sounds very different.

“I better not lose it,” he said. “Not now.”