An eight-month-old baby, born with hearing loss in both ears, got a cochlear implant in a private Delhi hospital. Diagnosed at birth with severe hearing loss in both his ears, the baby, a resident of Punjabi Bagh, was brought to Indraprastha Apollo Hospital. If not treated early enough, children born with hearing loss will not develop normal speech and language skills.
The baby was initially fitted with hearing aids to ascertain the level of benefit, as per international protocol. The team eventually confirmed that the child would not get a normal hearing with hearing aids, and the family was counselled for cochlear implants. Even though his young age of eight months presented a huge challenge, the doctors, with the consent of the parents, decided to go ahead with the surgery.
“When dealing with hearing loss in children of such a young age, the most important part is to restore the hearing of the child as early as possible. In the child’s case the treatment of choice for good hearing restoration was cochlear implant, and on top of that, it was important to restore hearing in both his ears (bilateral simultaneous cochlear implant), which means that implantation was done in both ears at the same time,” said Dr Ameet Kishore, senior consultant, ENT, and cochlear implant surgeon at the hospital.
“It requires extensive surgical expertise and efficiency to safely handle a small eight months old baby weighing just 10 kg, which is why many people would hesitate to do this surgery on such a little baby,” he added.