MNH surgeons to restore hearing in under 1yr-olds
Muhimbili National Hospital speech therapist John Bosco Kambanga interacts with Angel Ibrahim who underwent cochlea implantation in India recently. Looking on (centre), is Angel’s mother Jeniffer Godfrey. PHOTO | SAID KHAMIS
What you need to know:
- By using a special device known as ‘Cochlea Implant,’ the surgeons specialising on Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT), will now restore hearing in children aged below one year in the country.
Dar es Salaam. Specialists at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) will, from January next year, will be able to implant medical devices in children whose inner ears are damaged.
By using a special device known as ‘Cochlea Implant,’ the surgeons specialising on Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT), will now restore hearing in children aged below one year in the country.
MNH executive director Lawrence Museru told reporters yesterday that a team of experts who were sent to India for training on how to carry out the procedure, have reported back to the hospital and that they were making preparations for the interventions, come January 2017.
Prof Museru said that parents of 16 children, who had undergone the same procedure in India through government sponsorship, were now receiving guidance from the local experts on how to help their children handle the life-long implants.
It cost Sh80 million for each of the children to undergo the treatment in India. “But now, we will be able to acquire the devices from an Austrian supplier company, MedEL and the local surgeons ill insert the implants right here in the country,’ said the MNH senior public relations officer, Mr Aminiel Algaesha.
Yesterday, the parents and their children camped at MNH, where audiologists were carrying out a procedure known as mapping, on the children who received a cochlea implant in India recently.
Mapping, according to an ENT Surgeon, Dr Edwine Lyombo, means a process of programming a cochlear implant that is already in the children’s hearing systems, to suit the specifications and needs of the children.
One of the children, Angel Ibrahim, 4, was found undergoing a communication test from a speech therapist, Mr John Bosco Kambanga. He said, the child was now coping well.
“Usually, we monitor their ability to hear and speak basing on their ages. At her age, this child is supposed to be able to make a good sentence. She can try. At the age of one year,
“She could hardly make an appropriate response to any sound as per age requirements. We will continue monitoring her progress,’’ he told The Citizen.
About nine months after she was born, Angel Ibrahim, could not respond to sound or any noise like other children of her age. This triggered fear within the family that she was turning completely deaf.
Her mother, Ms Jeniffer Godfrey, a resident of Mbeya Region, attributes the hearing problem to a short illness that her daughter suffered from at that time. Little did she know that she would have to go through proverbial miles to seek treatment for her daughter in India.
“Angel had just recovered from a high fever. That’s when we noticed that she could not respond to us [her parents] like we were used to,’’ says Ms Godfrey a petty trader. “We resolved to seek treatment at Mbeya Regional Hospital.
According to Dr Lyombo, there are no studies done yet in Tanzania to show the extent of hearing problems in children but many cases can be attributed to birth defects and childhood illnesses such as Meningitis.
