"I decided that being deaf should never keep me from reaching my goals"
When you meet her, you can feel Bruna’s passion and positive energy – it’s contagious. But when you compliment her on it, she won’t be able to hear your words. When Bruna was one-and-a-half-years old, she contracted meningitis and lost her hearing. “But I decided that this should never keep me from reaching my goals.” And she kept that promise. Bruna is the first deaf person in Brazil to graduate with a degree in biomedical engineering – and that was just the beginning.
Working in healthcare has given Bruna the unique opportunity to do something that makes a difference. Always keeping the hearing-impaired community in mind, she and a colleague saw an opportunity to make a real change: “We developed an app that enables deaf people to call emergency services like an ambulance or the police with their mobile phone.” Part of this work got Bruna to receive the prestigious Prêmio Excelência Mulher award.
Today, Bruna works in our project analyst team, ensuring that the on-site architecture and electronics meet all regulations and specifications when we install our imaging systems. When communicating with her fellow deaf team members, she uses sign language; with her other co-workers speech and lip-reading. In a vivid corporate environment this can be challenging, but she manages. “And when things get difficult, I can always count on my team,” she says. “They’re great. They help me when I need assistance and make my life simpler.”
Bruna Leite works in our project analyst team in Brazil
