It is the only way she can understand what people around her are saying. She lost her hearing because of a life-threatening case of bacterial meningitis.
Bacterial meningitis is an infection of the fluid which surrounds the spinal cord and the brain.
One in ten cases results in death. In a normal ear, the cochlea, or inner ear, has thousands of small hair cells that convert vibrations from the eardrum into electrical impulses that are sent to the hearing nerve, and then to the brain where they are interpreted as sound. Deafness occurs when those hair cells are missing or damaged. A cochlear implant works by bypassing damaged hair cells and stimulating the hearing nerve through a series of electrodes. In Stephanie's case, the operation was complicated by her meningitis, which hardened the fluid in the cochlea and made inserting the electrodes difficult.