RAJKOT: Jamnagar’s state-run GG Hospital became the first from Saurashtra region to carry out the cochlear implant surgery. Children whose hearing is impaired by birth need the cochlear implant.
The hospital has also started the post-implant speech therapy for the three children who underwent cochlear transplant operation on Monday.
The cochlear transplant costs around Rs 8-10 lakh making it too costly for underprivileged families. With the state-run GG Hospital implanting the artificial organ for free, all such families no longer have to bother about the expensive treatment.
On Monday, a team of experts from Gandhinagar were roped in to perform the implant operations on three children — Jinal Andani, Ved Rabadiya and Dhruval Bavarva.
GG Hospital’s ENT department head Dr Niral Modi got the training for the surgery from Dr Niraj Suri, nodal state officer of cochlear implant.
Dr B R Vyas, professor of paediatric department of MP Shah Medical College, Jamnagar, said: “On an average 0.7% children face hearing deficiency. In this surgery the ENT specialist removes the defective cochlear and implants a new one which delivers sound signals to the hearing nerves.”
The children who have hearing deficiency also don’t learn to speak. So, the implant is followed by speech therapy for 12 to 18 months. Earlier, patients had to travel to Ahmedabad as no state-run hospitals in Saurashtra region were equipped to carry out the transplant.
Doctors informed that some children are born with hearing impairment while some lose hearing capacity due to severe illness like jaundice, epilepsy or damage to the brain. The cochlear implant gives a new lease of life to these children.
