More Deaf Pinoys Are Hearing Today
- First Published at Business Mirror on Monday, 12 November 2012 20:48
- Written by Leony R. Garcia
Hannah
Dorothy Pagarigan of Quezon City was six years old when she started
hearing life for the first time and eventually became part of mainstream
society.
She was born pre-term
(32 weeks gestational age) and upon birth was placed in a ventilator
where she suffered from bronco-pneumonia during admission.
At age two and on
suspicion of hearing loss, her mother brought the patient to an
Othorinolaryngology Specialist where she was diagnosed to have Profound
Hearing Loss.
At age three, she was
fitted with high power hearing instruments and subsequently enrolled in
an Auditory- Oral School but progress was disappointing and poor hearing
resulted to poor speech and language development.
In 2005, Hannah’s life
changed tremendously when she had her Cochlear Implant (CI) performed
by Dr. Norberto Martinez on May 13 of that year at the University of Sto
. Tomas Hospital . Her cochlear implant was donated by Finance Director
Dr. Alexander Schoedl, of MED-EL Worldwide Headquarters in Austria , Hanna's speech processor was then switched on a month later on June 13.
John Stephen Ching, on
the other hand, was detected to have hearing loss at age three. He is
the first born and only child of Sandy and Josephine Soliman Ching who
are both deaf. For some time,
his parents accepted and decided it was okay for John Stephen to be deaf
all his life – like them. “We are deaf, John is deaf. It was okay.
We’re deaf family.”
But at Grade 1, seeing
the great improvement in John Stephen at St. Francis School , a
specialized school for kids with cochlear implants, the parents had a
change of heart and mind. “There is hope for our son to become normal by
becoming part of the hearing world. With CI, John Stephen would be our
voice. And we will be assured of a better future for him.”
Husband and wife
together with the boy’s grandparents decided for him to have the implant
from MED-EL with the help of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office
(PCSO). He was operated on May 15, 2008 and his brand new ear's switch
on was set on June 15 at the UST hospital.
Pagarigan, now 11
years old, and Ching, now 16, are among the nearly 400 deaf and hearing
impaired individuals in the Philippines who benefited from this
breakthrough technology of a tiny implantable hearing device called
cochlear implant
WHAT IS COCHLEAR IMPLANT
For centuries, people
believed that only a miracle could restore hearing to the deaf. It was
not until 40 years ago that scientists first attempted to restore normal
hearing to the deaf by electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve. A
prosthetic device, called Cochlear Implant, is implanted in the inner
ear and restores partial hearing to profoundly deaf people. The implant
is based on the idea that there is enough auditory nerve fibers left for
stimulation in the vicinity of the electrodes. Once the nerve fibers
are stimulated, they fire and propagate neural impulses to the brain.
The brain interprets them as sounds.
PCSO AND OTHER PARTNERS
Now on its 15th year of operation in the Philippines , MEDEL continuous to give hope to deaf and the hearing impaired Filipinos especially
those who are categorized to be indigent or who come from less
privileged sector of the society. With the help of the PCSO and private
individuals, more beneficiaries are given the chance to live more
productive life. Over the years, PCSO has been donating funds for
operations on indigent deaf children. Private individuals,
organizations, foreign and local experts and doctors, and some members
of the media also contributed much and put the cause of deafness in the
country in the forefront thus aiding young children of even the most
underprivileged families.
“With MEDEL, everybody has the right to hearing. This is our advocacy,” stresses Maribel Mueller, MEDEL Philippines country manager.
“It
isn’t true – that because you don’t have money, you don’t have the
right to hear all your life. With the help of number one donor which is
PCSO, our only two excellent Surgeons in the country, Dr. Charlotte
Chiong of Manila Doctors Hospital, Capitol Medical Center, Malolos ENT
Hospital and Philippine General Hospital and Dr. Norberto Martinez of
University of Sto. Tomas Hospital and St. Lukes Medical Center and other
partners we were able to socialized the cost of the implant. We now
have nearly 500 cochlear implant users mostly kids,” says Mueller.
MED-EL AT 15 AND BEYOND
When MEDEL started in
the country in 1997, it gave out four implants for free. After 10 years,
in 2005, it gave out three implants as a way of the company’s
thanksgiving.
Living up to its advocacy, MEDEL also
donated in 2006, two Vibrant Soundbridge devices for three middle ear
implant operations held at the Philippine General Hospital and
University of Sto . Tomas Hospital . Moreover, the company sponsored the
airfare of the two most experienced surgeons Italian Prof. Vittorio
Colletti and Austrian Prof. Wolf-Dieter Baumgartner for said operations,
the first of its kind in the country.
For details and more
information on hearing implantable devices, please call Med-el at tel.
No. 807-8780 or visit the website at www.medel.com.
Comments
Post a Comment