ISP excise officer to meet inventors of his cochlear implant

EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) -

If it wasn't for one tiny, but complex device, Indiana State Excise Officer Chuckie Butler may have missed out on some big things in life.

"I'm very thankful for it," Butler says. "I mean, there's just no other way to say it. It's hard to convey that."

But Butler will at least get to try, when he meets the people who changed his life.

"It's like meeting a comic book superhero," Butler says.

Chuckie's superheroes are the Hochmairs, a bioengineering power couple who helped create Medel cochlear implants.

He's been a firearms instructor since before he got the implant. But with only hearing aids, many sounds at a range were too high a frequency to register on his severely damaged nerves. Now that's all changed.

"I can hear rifle malfunctions about the same time as a person with normal hearing would hear it," Butler says. "I can hear the ricochets and maintain my safety as well as the safety of the students on the line as well."

Students, like his confinement-officer wife who we met today. He can now hear perfectly during a lesson or on the phone.

"Now he can give just a quick hello on the phone with him just to say, 'Hey, I love you. I'm missing you.'" Leslie Butler says. "It's great that he can do that and not through text."

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ISP excise officer to meet inventors of his cochlear implant