Rehmat Khan, 32, and wife Shaheeda Praveen, 24, were blessed with a baby boy in January this year. Like any other couple, they were thrilled and the boy was named as Mhd Hussain.
But soon Rehmat and Shaheeda found their son was not responding to claps and cheering or any other sound in his surroundings. Rehmat Khan has history of hearing loss but could not bear to see his little baby suffer.
The family decided to visit the local hospital for immediate advice. Mhd Hussain’s grandfather Shambhu Khan took the kid to Sarvodaya Health Care in Haryana’s Faridabad.
The baby was examined by a team of doctors. After conducting the necessary tests and scans, Dr Ravi Bhatia, head of the ENT, decided to operate the child to place a Cochlear implant inside his ear.
The Cochlear implant functions by bypassing damaged parts of the ear to directly stimulate the auditory nerve, explains Dr Bhatia. The device consists of two components— an internal device surgically implanted inside the ear and a second device which is an external equipment which includes a speech processor and transmitting coil and microphone. The internal device then stimulates the auditory nerve allowing sound signals to reach the brain enabling the person to hear.
In most cases, the outcome is optimistic, especially when deafness is detected early. Even better if the deafness is known as soon as child is born, say experts.
Baby Mhd Husssain’s surgery cost was borne by Hans Foundation, an NGO which works closely with Sarvodaya Health Care. Normally Cochlear implant costs around Rs 12 lakhs but the parents of Mhd Hussain did not have to spend any money as the expenses were taken care of by the foundation.
A Cochlear implant lives the life of the patient. Five months have passed since the surgery and Shaheeda and Rehmat are happy to see their son’s progress.
Mhd Hussain is the youngest in the country with a Cochlear implant at the age of four-and-a-half months. The claps and cheering are back in the family as Hussain responds to all sounds and makes necessary eye contact in the direction of the sound.