Shivtej Narvadede with his parents.
Mumbai: A six-month-old boy from Tuljapur became
the youngest child in the country to undergo
cochlear implant surgery on August 22 at Kokilaben
Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital (KDAH), Andheri.
Born to hearing and speech-impaired parents from
rural Maharashtra, the father, who is a farmer,
decided to get their firstborn, Shivtej Narvadede,
a cochlear implant soon after he found that he too
suffered from hearing impairment, and the implant
could help him lead a better life.
Rameshwar, Shivtej’s paternal uncle said it was
the grandmother who first noticed it and informed
the couple. “Both my brother Nyaneshwar and
Supriya have had hearing loss since birth. They
could not figure out that Shivtej was not
responding to sounds like a mixer grinder. We
immediately called the anganwadi and the local
district hospital, who directed us to Mumbai,”
said Rameshwar.
A cochlear implant is a small electronic device
generally advised to people with severe or
irreversible hearing loss.
Dr Sanjiv Badhwar, ENT surgeon who operated on
Shivtej, said, “We hold screening camps in rural
areas, and that’s how the local district hospital
connected them to us. These camps aim to detect
hearing impairment early in children, and this
child was luckily detected very early to become
one of the youngest children in Asia to get
operated for a cochlear implant.”
The unilateral cochlear implant surgery was free
of cost under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram
(RBSK) scheme. “He is doing good. Once the wound
heals (which is a month after he is operated on),
we will do the switch-on process where the implant
is activated by fitting an external speech
processor,” said Badhwar.
According to ENT doctors, the implant helps the
person with hearing loss to hear and understand
more speech than was possible with a hearing aid.
It has tiny receptors implanted in the skin near
the ears to make it possible for the patients to
hear. These implants cost around ₹5-6 lakh.
Dr Samir Bhargava, ENT specialist, PD Hinduja
Hospital-Mahim and National ENT President
(Association of Otolaryngologists of
India)
said that all over the world, in developed
countries, newborn hearing screening is mandatory.
“Therefore, on day one or two of birth, newborns
are detected with moderate to severe or profound
hearing loss. The idea is to detect early, find
the cause within three months, and then go for
interventions,” said Bhargava.
Dr Bhargava said in Australia, the child is
operated on as early as four months, and in the
US, the age is decreasing below one year.
“Unfortunately, in India, we do not have a newborn
hearing screening programme,” he said adding that
the earlier the child gets operated the more
normal will be the child’s speech development.
Till the year 2000, the detection of hearing loss
in a child was around 9 to 12 months of age,
Dr Amol Patil, ENT specialist, Nanavati
Hospital-Vile Parle said. “A study has shown that
early cochlear implantation shows significant
improvement in hearing. We can expect a new
recommendation that says cochlear implants can be
done in a six-month-old and above child,” he said.
Courtesy: HT
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