TAMPA — Nora “Noni” Brill may have lost much of her natural ability to hear years ago, but her sharp mind and sense of humor are as present as ever. That was clear late last month at the Tampa Bay Hearing and Balance Center on the campus of Tampa General Hospital when a routine appointment turned into a surprise celebrity meet-and-greet.

Lou Ferrigno, the original Hulk and former Mr. Universe, stopped by the center to spend time with the 95-year-old Brill because the two have something in common: Both are recipients of cochlear implants that help restore hearing.

“It was a life-changing experience for me,” Ferrigno, 70, said of receiving his implant just over a year ago. The actor and former pro bodybuilder lost most of his hearing at an early age and relied on various hearing aids in both ears until undergoing the cochlear procedure. He’s been an advocate for people with hearing loss for decades and was in Tampa along with Cochlear Americas for the Hearing Loss Association of America 2022 Convention from June 23-25.

“I know what people go through when they have hearing loss and they are suffering,” Ferrigno said while seated next to Brill in a meeting room in the Tampa Bay Hearing and Balance Center office. “Doing this brings hope to a lot of people that they can restore a lot of their hearing. There are so many people who lose their hearing and they end up living in shame because they feel like they’re isolated from the world.”

Brill’s hearing loss didn’t begin until later in life, when she was in her late 50s and early 60s, and she shared similar stories of how it caused her to slowly pull away from her friends, family and surroundings.

“It was so subtle at first,” said Brill, who worked as a journalist into her 70s for the Tampa Times and Tampa Tribune. “You don’t think of yourself as deaf, but then you suddenly realize you’re not hearing what somebody’s saying.”

“I used to play an awful lot of bridge and I couldn’t play anymore because my partners would have to yell at me because I couldn’t hear them,” Brill said. “I started to realize I was withdrawing from life, then being OK with it.”

Over time, however, feelings of emptiness and boredom began to increase. “And all the Amazon deliveries you miss,” she added, sprinkling jokes throughout the conversation. It reached a point where Brill knew if she was ever going to do something, it was now. She received a Kanso 2 cochlear implant in April and had it activated in May.

“It sounds ridiculous, but I feel younger and I feel more involved with life,” Brill said while also seated alongside audiologist Lisa Gavin, who helped explain the implant. “I get up in the morning and I look forward to what the day is going to bring. It's bringing back some things that you don’t even realize you’ve lost until they’re gone.

“I think it’s a great thing. It's a marvelous invention and I don’t know what took me so long. It really is never too late.”

Cochlear implants consist of two main parts, Gavin explained. An internal device is implanted between the skin and the skull. It has tiny electrical contacts that go into the cochlea and stimulate the hearing nerve. About 2-3 weeks later, the external part of the device is activated. A magnet that connects to the internal implant stimulates the hearing nerve electrically and sends the sound to the brain.

“It doesn’t restore the hearing to normal, but a person’s hearing should be significantly better than they’re doing currently,” Gavin said. “But it is a process. It's not like we put it on and they immediately start understanding. A lot of times in the beginning it’s just beeps or buzzes or things sound very robotic or cartoonish. But the more the person listens with it and practices and does exercises, the more natural it will start to sound.”

The cochlear implants are also Bluetooth-connected devices and there are downloadable apps designed to help recipients further improve their hearing.

“You have to work at it,” Ferrigno said. “When you have the implant, you can’t ignore it. The harder you work on the app will speed up your hearing. To me it’s like working out your muscles; it’s fun.”

Also present for the surprise meet-and-greet were one of Brill’s four children, her daughter, Dianne, and Brill’s neighbor, Tara Snyder.

“We’re able to FaceTime again and it’s heaven,” said Dianne Brill, who lives out of state. “There was a big period of time I couldn’t see her and it seemed like we were getting farther and farther away.”

“It’s been unbelievable with Noni,” said Snyder, who helps Brill get to and from appointments and around the home. “When I first met her, she was isolated and just more off in the distance. And now, her progress has been amazing.”

Toward the end of the surprise meet-and-greet, Brill’s journalistic chops kicked back into gear as she began asking Ferrigno what it was like suffering from hearing loss while trying to become a successful bodybuilder and actor. As Ferrigno described the challenges, such as not being able to wear hearing aids at all while training because of sweat, he explained how living with a disability can be used to fuel a person’s ability to achieve great things.

“Everybody has a passion,” Ferrigno said. “If you embrace that passion, that’s more powerful than anything else. Passion.”