Four Year Old Boy Hears For The First Time

FARIDABAD, India - Aug. 8, 2015 - PRLog -- Asian Institute of Medical Sciences has achieved yet another major feat in its long list of achievements. Faridabad’s first super- speciality hospital and major referral centre for cancer treatment conducted it’s first cochlear implant in Faridabad, which has set new benchmarks in the healthcare industry.

Four-year-old Khalid was born deaf and mute & it took his parents almost an year to realize that their son cannot hear and does not respond to sound. From then on it was major a battle for his parents as they tried their utmost to make the life of their son livable. When all things failed divine intervention paved the way for Khalid to get in touch with Asian Hospital.

Khalid was brought to Dr Lalit Parashar ,Head & Sr.Consultant- ENT, Asian Institute of Medical Sciences. He was examined thoroughly and it was concluded that his hearing loss was very profound. His parents were advised to opt for a cochlear implant followed by rehabilitation therapy to make him speak. The suggestion of Cochlear implant and its cost and outcome were explained to the parents, who then attempted to get financial support and approached the hospital again.

A cochlear implant is an electronic device that is partially implanted surgically into the cochlea, the hearing organ of the inner ear. It uses electrical current to bypass damaged or missing portions of the inner ear and stimulates remaining hearing nerve fibers. A microphone,a Speech processor, and a transmitter are worn externally. Unlike hearing aids, which make sounds louder, cochlear implants do the work of damaged parts of the inner ear (cochlea) to provide sound signals to the brain. The implant has the best results when done between the ages of 12 months to 5 years, so that the child can undergo rehabilitation therapy to speak normally.

Dr.Lalit Parashar said, that hearing loss was one of the most common major abnormalities present at birth and if undetected would impede speech, language and cognitive development, significant bilateral hearing loss is present in about one to three per 1,000 new borns.

Elaborating on the case, Dr. Swapnil Brajpuriya, Sr. Consultant, ENT said “The cause of hearing loss may be due to intra-uterine infection, birth asphyxia, neo natal jaundice. In such cases early identification and intervention is very essential.

Dr. N. K Pandey, Chairman, MD & Chief Surgeon, Asian Institute of Medical Sciences, said,The cochlear implant procedure is a technically challenging surgery with very few centres all over India performing the same successfully. The procedure performed on khalid was a feat of sorts for our Hospital as well as it registered its name in the miniscule list of hospitals that have performed cochlear implant first time in Delhi/NCR.

Adding to it Dr.Lalit Parshar said “Presently, Cochlear implant is the only hope for these groups of patients for developing and learning linguistic ability for communication.” Cochlear implant is an established medical option designed to help the child with hearing loss to communicate more easily and interact more comfortably with others.

After a successful operation Khalid is now undergoing rigorous rehabilitation programme where his speech ability will be monitored and improved.

Asian Institute of Medical Sciences has achieved an important milestone by performing the first successful cochlear implant in the area. The ENT team “Switched On” the Cochlear implant successfully, making Asian Institute of Medical Sciences the first centre providing such a lifechanging operation in the Faridabad region. This is a news, we are justifiably proud of.