Lou Ferrigno, the former Incredible Hulk star, has recently said that getting a cochlear implant was “like a wake-up call.”
The 69-year-old star was dealing with hearing loss for nearly his entire life due to multiple ear infections as a toddler, which caused irreversible nerve damage in his ears.
After the cochlear implant, Ferrigno is able to hear some sounds for the first time. He told PEOPLE, “It was like a dream come true.”
Ferrigno used several unwieldy and often unhelpful hearing aids. He even took lip-reading classes so he can understand what people were saying to him.
“It’s been an uphill battle for me because when you have severe hearing loss it affects your speech, it affects everything,” he said, “so I had to work on both issues my whole life.”
The fitness consultant was bullied growing up for his hearing aid and his speech impediment. He used to escape the bullies and dive into the Hulk and Spiderman comic books.
Ferrigno said, “I was obsessed with power. I wanted to be strong enough so that I could be able to defend myself,” which eventually led him to a career in bodybuilding.
“It changed my life,” he told PEOPLE. “It gave me drive and determination. I knew that this was my journey to be successful because if I hadn’t discovered bodybuilding, I would have gone the other way, feeling sorry for myself and maybe resorting to drugs. It’s all about taking action because nobody can do that for you except for yourself.”
In the early 70s, Ferrigno used to train with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Their rivalry led to Ferrigno’s casting in The Incredible Hulk.
The retired professional bodybuilder said, “I knew I had to pay special attention because I had to constantly read lips. Sometimes on set the hearing aid malfunctions and I had to be treated like a hard-of-hearing person. And I never really wanted that sympathy. So over the years, I ended up wearing two hearing aids instead of one, because I wanted to maximize whatever hearing I did have.”
Ferrigno has used several different kinds of hearing aids, but his hearing continued to decline as he aged. He was aware of the fact that a cochlear implant would help, but he was hesitant to get it done because it requires a short surgery.
One of Ferrigno’s friends, who also had similar hearing issues and underwent a cochlear implant, convinced him to get it done.
Ferrigno said, “When I saw a friend of mine do it, after what he’s been through and what he’s been suffering, I said, ‘Why not do this? Why not get better?’ Because my whole life it’s been frustrating to not be able to hear.”
“Once you get the cochlear implant surgery, you have to wait three or four weeks before it becomes activated,” he explained. “So that means you’re completely deaf in that ear until they activate it, so I was just hoping that it would work.”
“When she gave it to me, I was hearing some sounds for the first time,” Ferrigno said. “The whole thing just lit up. It was quite an experience.”
“My hearing is getting better and better and better, it’s constantly improving,” he added. “I told my doctor that I want to get up to 85% clarity.”
Now, Ferrigno wants to encourage others with hearing loss to know that a cochlear implant is a life-saver and it could help people get back their hearing. He told PEOPLE, “My goal is to let everyone know that I’m wearing this and that it gives them hope because there’s a lot of people nervous about doing this. Because they keep thinking that it’s a major operation. But I want people to know that there’s hope. You can make your life much easier, so why not go for it.”
