This is the emotional moment a teen with irreversible hearing loss that she shares with her mom has her cochlear implants activated for the very first time. Katelynn Bronson, from Provo, Utah, shares a hereditary hearing loss, passed down through her mom, Jennifer. Jennifer, 38, started losing her hearing in her 20s, and after Katelynn, now 14, was born her family were worried she would start losing her hearing, too. Having passed her hearing test at birth, Katelynn began to show signs of the same condition as her mom after her first birthday, and she received her hearing aids when she turned four. Katelynn learned to read lips, but in school it was clear her hearing was getting worse, Jennifer said, so her family started looking into cochlear implants.