Hoffmann collaborated with Aviva Brandsdorfer, a regional sales manager at Widex, a hearing aid manufacturer. Brandsdorfer approached her supervisors about donating their newest state-of-the-art hearing aid system to Moynihan, and they agreed.

“Dan received a new Widex biCROS hearing system, which allows sound picked up by the deaf ear, to transfer wirelessly over to the opposite ear which has some usable hearing,” explained Hoffmann. “I felt honored to be able to help someone who was a volunteer fireman and a 9-11 first responder.”

According to Marla Seiden, president of Seiden Communications, the Widex biCROS hearing system along with services, cost more than $7,000. Moynihan said that Widex agreed to reduce the cost of the device, and Hoffmann and her partner, Dr. Amy Sapodin, also an audiologist, covered the remaining sum.

Moynihan recalled being “overjoyed” after being fitted with the biCROS hearing system back in March. He no longer has to watch people’s lips during conversations, and heard the inflections in his three-year old nephew’s voice for the first time. 

Like most 9-11 first responders, Moynihan suffers from a host of illnesses. He is on a daily treatment regimen for cluster headaches, which are nicknamed suicide headaches for their intensity. He also developed asthma and COPD.

“In the past 11 years, I’ve been in the hospital 37 times,” said Moynihan. In spite of his health conditions, Moynihan says he’s a lucky man, especially because brain cancers are rampant in the first responders’ community.

Moynihan was delivering juice to mom-and-pop shops in the city with an off-duty New York City firefighter when he first learned of the terrorist attacks on 9-11. Both men were contacted by their respective fire departments, and quickly responded to the call of duty.

“I spent about 13 hours there that first day,” said Moynihan. “I was taken to the hospital with smoke inhalation, dehydration and heat exhaustion. About 1 a.m., I got cut loose and went right back. I spent about three-and-a-half weeks there.”