COCHLEAR IMPLANT

Gilbert Hadfield 65, anxiously waited for his son to pick him up at the airport. After 14 years he would be able to talk to him again.

Hadfield of Wainuiomata became totally deaf at the age of 51. Doctors could not identify the reason but thanks to a cochlear implant he can hear again. The cochlear was implanted in Christchurch seven months ago.

The Southern Cochlear Implant Programme describes the device as a type of surgically-implanted hearing aid. Instead of amplifying sounds like a traditional hearing aid, it provides a sensation of hearing by directly stimulating the auditory nerve using electrical signals.

“When I got out of the hospital after the surgery, I could hear huge sounds as if a monster was going to grabbing me up, so I was quiet frightened and nervy;” reacalls Hadfield. “whoom whoom, it was a car going pass. I was jumping.”

The device is most appropriate where the cochlear does not have enough surviving hair cells for a conventional hearing aid to be effective.

“This kind of surgery is given a people who is completely deaf. You need to have some language already. People who born deaf and get the implant might be able to hear sounds but not necessarily develop speech.” Said Hadfield.


“I could not follow a conversation a first stage. The second day it was difficult but I made it, but at the third day I was able to follow a conversation. That day my son picked me up at the airport and it was our first conversation since he was a teenager and now he is 28. It has make a huge difference to my life”

The device is basically for speech but scientists are working on improving the implant to make people able to hear music.

ENDS