Ray Cathey is on a journey from silence to new sounds. Cathey's hearing took a pounding when he was an air rescue paramedic during the Vietnam War.

"When you're in helicopters all the time and you've got two great big jet engines over your head about two feet, all you're wearing is a helmet," Cathey said.

Decades later, Cathey's hearing had deteriorated so much, he couldn't hear anything out of his left ear.

"You don't know what people are saying to you, and people look at you and are like, 'I just said something to you. Why didn't you answer me?' " he recalled. "I was not going to be able to hear. I was going to be deaf. This left ear was virtually worthless."

So when Cathey heard about cochlear implants, he looked into them. Unlike hearing aids , which simply amplify sound, cochl

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