Cindy Redmond’s life was drastically altered when the North Wilmington, Delaware youngster committed a common adolescent mistake. Cindy took out her mobile phone while seated at her friend’s dinner table. The dinner hadn’t arrived yet, and the girl had received a phone call, so she chose to answer it.
Regrettably for her, her friend’s stepfather was not thrilled to see her using the phone at the table and wanted to intervene. The girl’s angry and overzealous father tried to punish Cindy by blowing an air horn in her face. He didn’t realize that this kind of “punishment” would only scare the teen girl.
Cindy’s life was ruined in an instant when she felt a pop in her head and started to feel severe agony. Unfortunately, things did not improve. Cindy was at the emergency hospital after four days of anguish since she couldn’t stand the noises of the outside world any longer.
She was eventually diagnosed with hyperacusis, a highly unusual illness thought to be caused by neurological or inner ear damage. There is no solution for this painful and debilitating illness.
Noises that most individuals regard as minor annoyances generate a scorching, stabbing agony in patients with hyperacusis. As a result, everyday sounds such as infants screaming, sirens blasting, dogs barking, or people yelling cause Cindy excruciating pain, requiring her to live in silence to escape the suffering connected with loud noise.
Naturally, this has had a detrimental influence on Cindy’s life in a variety of ways. She wanted to go to the aquarium for her 14th birthday. Twenty minutes in, she was weeping from agony, as Laurie, her mother, recounted. Moreover, Cindy’s health has prompted her to withdraw from school, radically altering her life.
Cindy, who is now home-schooled, will never be able to return to public school with her peers due to the incurable, intense pain she suffers on a daily basis. The noise level in the cafeteria, in particular, would be too high.
Even with the noise-cancelling headphones she wears most of the day and an earpiece that creates white noise as a sort of sound therapy, she remains in moderate discomfort all day.
Cindy misses out on so many things because it just takes one high-pitched noise to send her reeling for over an hour in agonizing anguish, and it might take her days to recover from sustained noise.
For the rest of her life, she will have to skip parties, dances, family activities, concerts, performances, and so much more—or risk experiencing misery that the rest of us can’t fathom. She may never be able to find work.
Worse, Laurie claims that the individual who permanently altered Cindy’s life by blowing the horn in her face has never apologised. He also forbids his daughter from seeing Cindy, and some of Cindy’s acquaintances suspect her of faking the disease.
There was a lot of anger at first, and then it evolved into despair, understanding that my whole world had disintegrated, Cindy said, adding that she’s now taking things one day at a time since her future is filled with huge uncertainty.
Nevertheless, to the surprise of many, Laurie says she and her daughter have no desire to pursue legal action, preferring to concentrate on forgiveness and moving on as best they can.
Rules are occasionally broken by kids. They may also be inconsiderate and unpleasant, particularly when they are teens. Although it is an adult’s responsibility to reprimand a kid when they do something wrong, some people go too far with punishment. This was one of those occasions.
A straightforward explanation of the regulations should have sufficed. He might have simply warned her that she wouldn’t be allowed back if she didn’t follow the rules of his house. Yet this person planned to inflict a shocking and humiliating punishment. Maybe he thought that would be amusing. Yet no one is amused. Therefore, we are reminded that every discipline should start with a conversation.
Air horns are common, cheaply obtained, and often observed being used for so-called “pranks.” Unfortunately, most people have no idea how much harm they may do. Use Cindy’s story to serve as a cautionary tale. It is not a good idea to blow an air horn near an unsuspecting person’s ears. Spare someone from Cindy’s anguish by informing others that an air horn is not a harmless method of punishment.
