Reprinted with permission.
Dayton Daily News, 19 July 2001
Veterinarian honored for work on behalf of hearing impaired: Washington Twp. Doctor's own hearing loss was impetus
By Katherine Ullmer
Veterinarian Danielle Rastetter of Washington Twp. checks a cat
with an eye infection at the Animal Medical Center in Springboro.
Rastetter, who is hearing impaired, recently received the Hiram College
Recent Graduate Service to Humanity Award in recognition of her work on
behalf of others who are hearing impaired.
Jasmine, a lanky 2-year-old black and white cat with a gunky reddened left eye, is showing passive resistance to being examined by Dr. Danielle Rastetter.
Jasmine tries to wriggle out of the veterinarian's able hands, but Rastetter knows her cats and, despite Jasmine's best efforts, Rastetter gives her the once-over from head to paw.
Then, to show Jasmine's owner, Lindsay Stahl of Franklin, how to put salve in Jasmine's eye without getting scratched, Rastetter wraps Jasmine's body in a brown towel like a big burrito.
Rastetter's hand approaches from the side with one quick swipe of the salve, and Jasmine doesn't know what hit her. The salve is in.
Rastetter looks up when Stahl asks about Jasmine's prognosis. Rastetter has set the guidelines of their communication when first introduced. "I ask clients to look at me when they're talking so I can read their lips," Rastetter says.
Dr. Danielle Rastetter (left) and Connie Fields check an ailing cat
in their Springboro offiice.
Born with a congenital hearing loss that steadily worsened after the age of 3, Rastetter, now 29, uses a hearing aid, an amplified stethoscope and other amplified equipment as well as lip reading to hear what's going on.
Her speech is clear, though highly enunciate - the only real give-away that she's hearing impaired. Though she knows sign language, she's not fluent in it, she said.
"If she can't hear you, she will let us know," said Jeanette Martin, who manages the veterinary practice of her husband, Bill Martin, at the Animal Medical Center in Springboro where Rastetter has worked as an associate since June.
Bill Martin and Rastetter's acquaintance goes back to their school days when Rastetter was at Centerville High School and Martin at Patterson Cooperative High School in Dayton and they both helped clean kennels at Bigger Road Veterinary Clinic in Kettering.
Both graduated from Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine with their doctorate degrees, Rastetter in 1998, Martin in 2000.
Rastetter attended Hiram College near Cleveland as an undergraduate, majoring in biology. This June, the college presented her with the Recent Graduate Service to Humanity Award in recognition of her work on behalf of the hearing impaired.
Each year the alumni executive board considers someone for the award, said Heather Meeker, director of alumni relations for Hiram College.
Rastetter's work in a professional environment for the hearing impaired "came to your attention and we wanted to recognize her for that," she said.
In presenting the award, Hiram biology professor Prudy Hall noted that in 1997 Rastetter found Network for Overcoming Increased Silence Effectively, an Internet site for medical professionals with hearing losses to exchange information.
This led to the creation of the Association of Medical Professionals with Hearing Losses, a nonprofit organization that "provides information, promotes advocacy, identifies mentors and creates a network for individuals with hearing losses interested in or working in health care fields," she said.
Rastetter was one of seven people who helped establish this group in 1998 and is its current president and director. Its web site is www.amphl.org.
Rastetter said she knows the isolation and challenges that come from not being able to hear in a hearing world.
Born into a military family, she moved a lot as a child, making it hard to make friends. Her hearing loss isolated her even more, she said. She attended regular classes in mostly private schools.
Her father, who bred dachshunds, encouraged her love of animals.
In making medical rounds, understanding what's being said when 10 people are talking at once can be a challenge, she said. She handles this by having each person wishing to talk hold an FM amplifying system. Also, "I made them slow down," she said.
During surgery, since the surgical face masks prevented her from reading lips, she used a stenographer for real-time captioning.
During the clinical part of training "the student is on the bottom of the totem pole," Rastetter said. "Many people with a hearing loss go through an identity crisis at that time," she said. "They realize how their hearing loss affects them and what they can and cannot do."
"AMPHL and NOISE help give people with hearing losses an outlet so they can learn how others have coped with a problem," she said.
She's now working to find a solution to the surgical mask problem. She and other members of AMPHL have been collecting signatures on a petition to get the Kimberly-Clark Corp., of Roswell, Ga - which holds an exclusive patent for a clear surgical face mask but has no plans to manufacture it - to either manufacture the mask or sell the patent to a company that would manufacture it.
Rastetter began her career in a Danvers, Mass., clinic after graduating from vet school in 1998. She decided to return to the Dayton area last summer to be near family and friends.
A single parent, she and her 8-month-old son, Tamir, and their two mixed-breed cats, Tika and Pora, and two dogs, a beagle named Pooh and a 22-pound mixed breed named Ren, have been living with her parents, Arthur and Marcelle Rastetter in Washington Twp., while her house is being built in Miamisburg.
She still has some residual hearing and can hear her baby's babbles and coos, she said, though at night she uses a sound system that vibrates her pillow to wake her up when the baby cries.
While animals can't talk, they can growl and whine from pain. Rastetter said, "If I'm looking for an area of pain, I have the animal's owner let me know if the dog or cat whines if I don't hear it," she said.
A hearing loss can be dangerous in working with large animals, Rastetter said. During her veterinary training she dealt with all-sized animals, including bulls. Not being able to hear when a bull plans to charge can be extremely dangerous, she said. She prefers working with dogs and cats and other small animals.
"Communication's not been a problem," Bill Martin said, "People have very much liked her."
Jasmine apparently agreed. She gave Rastetter's arm several friendly licks.