Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital, attached to K.A.P. Viswanatham Government Medical College, in the city performed its first cochlear implant surgeries on Friday. The surgeries were performed on three children under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme.
The surgeries were performed by a team of ENT surgeons of the hospital led by S. Palaniappan, Head, Department of ENT, along with S. Mohan Kameswaran, senior ENT surgeon and founder-director of Madras ENT Research Foundation.
The surgeries, costing about Rs.8 lakh for a child, were performed successfully on three deaf-mute children — Varshini (3) from Manapparai, Bhuvaneswari (4) from Kaduvetti, Thottiyam and Navaneethakrishnan (6) of Villukaranpatti, Manapparai, free of cost under the insurance scheme, K.S.Palanisamy, Collector, and Mary Lilly, Dean of the hospital, announced at a press conference. Dr. Lilly said the three children belonged to poor families.
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While parents of two children had approached the hospital authorities, Navananeethakrishnan was referred to the hospital by the Collector after his parents sought help at the weekly grievance redress meeting.
Dr. Kameswaran, who has been performing cochlear implant surgeries since 1996, said deafness by birth was primarily due to consanguineous marriages. Tamil Nadu had a high incidence of deafness at birth because of the large number of consanguineous marriages.
Children born deaf also became dumb and through cochlear implant surgeries such children would be able to hear and speak. However, it was vital that deafness among children was detected early.
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The success rate would be good if the surgeries were performed at around the age of three and before the age of six. “The earlier the surgery is performed, the better the result,” he said.
The State government, he pointed out, had launched a pilot project to carry out neonatal screening in two districts to identify children born deaf and had planned to extend the same to all districts under its Vision 2020 plan.
The Tiruchi Government Hospital had trained doctors and para-medical staff, besides good facilities to perform cochlear implant surgeries, he said.
Dr.Palaniappan said the children who had undergone the surgeries would be able to hear and speak like normal children within a year. The children would undergo speech therapy and rehabilitation at the hospital for a year.
Mr.Palanisamy said people with children with deafness at birth could contact the hospital authorities, the District Differently Abled Officer or the district administration to undergo the cochlear implant surgeries at the hospital under the insurance scheme.