Mom of Olympian Cathy Boswell gets hearing implant just in time for daughter’s induction into Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame

After she lost her hearing at age 87, Clarice Boswell decided to get a hearing device implanted in her ear. The clock was ticking: She wanted to regain her hearing in time to hear her daughter inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

Cathy Boswell, a former basketball star at Illinois State University and an Olympic gold medalist, is due to be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Saturday. Clarice wanted to hear her daughter’s acceptance speech.

“That was my prayer, that my hearing would be restored,” she said, “that I could hear her receive her Hall of Fame recognition. It’s very important because it’s been a long journey. And one that’s very deserving.”

Her daughter is relieved that her mom will be able to hear her, because she wants to thank her parents publicly for everything they did for her. “I want my mom to be able to hear that,” Cathy Boswell said.

Boswell led Joliet West High School to the state championship in 1978. Before leaving ISU in 1983, Cathy Boswell she was a two-time All-American, and led the Redbirds to 90 wins and an entry into the NCAA Tournament. She was also a member of the 1984 women’s Olympic team that won a gold medal.

After college, Boswell played for years internationally and in the American Basketball League, winning a Most Valuable Player award and several championships, and was an assistant coach as ISU. She’s staying in Plainfield where her mother lives until she sees what’s next.

In February, her mother had surgery to receive an electronic hearing device called a cochlear implant. In contrast to external hearing aids, which simply amplify sounds, cochlear implants bypass nonworking parts of the inner ear, called the cochlea, to directly stimulate the hearing nerve. It also requires use of a small transmitter held on the outside of the head.

In Clarice’s case, she benefited from a procedure that was recently approved by the FDA for deafness in one ear. That means the cost, which can range from $30,000 to $50,000, now is eligible for coverage by Medicare and insurance. Clarice had previously lost hearing in her left ear, but that was some years ago. She wouldn’t benefit from the surgery on that side because she’d lost her auditory processing there.

Cochlear implants must be done soon after hearing loss so that the auditory nerve that sends noise signals to the brain remains intact, Clarice Boswell’s surgeon, Dr. John Leonetti, said.

“In general, all the patients can hear on the first day of activation, but the more they wear the implant, the more natural all the sounds become,” Leonetti told the Tribune in an email. “She was exceptional, in that she heard clearer than the average patient from the very first activation.”

Leonetti, an otolaryngologist with Loyola Medicine, does some 50 to 100 surgeries a year.

Doctors are encouraging such implants and hearing aids for another reason: recent research suggesting a link between age-related hearing loss and cognitive decline and dementia.

Cochlear implants can help people to hear, though medical providers caution that the sound is not natural, and typically takes some time to get used to and understand what is being heard.

“In general, all the patients can hear on the first day of activation, but the more they wear the implant, the more natural all the sounds become,” Leonetti said. “(Clarice) was exceptional, in that she heard clearer than the average patient from the very first activation.”

The device has generated some controversy, with some in the deaf community feeling that its promotion can be “ableist” and problematic, particularly for children, and preferring that other accommodations be made for people with hearing difficulties.

As for Clarice Boswell, who prayed over her doctor’s hands before surgery, she considers the implant a miracle. Loyola shared a video of the moment her implant was activated.

“God works in mysterious ways,” she said. “I always give thanks and praise for the miracle of hearing.”

Boswell, who is retired from teaching and administration at Joliet Township High School and the University of St. Francis, has written a book about her family, called “Lizzie’s Story: A Slave Family’s Journey to Freedom.” It tells the story of her family struggling to keep together despite the tortures of slavery.

She and her family have given lectures in the Chicago area about the use of quilts to help enslaved people find their way to freedom through the Underground Railroad. She hopes one day to have her book made into a movie.