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June 11, 2005
'Miracle' helps toddler to hear
The parents of a girl who was born deaf have thanked surgeons for the "miracle" they performed. After an operation to implant an electronic listening device in her ear, Ava Osker is well on the way to recovery.
And for her parents Zara (30) and Paul Osker (31), June 1 is a day they will never forget, for that is the date their 15-month-old daughter heard her first sound.
Mrs Osker said: "The people who did this are gods."
Now, the young family hope Ava will be able to interact with them even more.
Mrs Osker said: "She's starting to respond to a lot of environmental sounds like clapping and the banging of drums.
"She's got to learn it all from fresh, she's like a newborn baby again trying to take everything in.
"I think she's realising she's got a voice now, and we're told that over the next few months she will get louder and louder and then start making baby noises, and calling us mama and papa.
"When she does that it will bring a tear to my eye."
Surgeons at Addenbrooke's Hospital, in Cambridge, put a hi-tech cochlea implant in her ear, and they switched on the device on May 19.
Mrs Osker, from Coniston Road, Gunthorpe, Peterborough, added: "It's now all in the hands of the audiologists, they're all very pleased with her progress.
"They say she's a little star, and they're impressed with the way she's responding.
"They've got high hopes for her."
The first child in the UK to be given a cochlea implant was in 1987. Since then, about 3,000 children under the age of 16 have received them.
Roger Gray, who carried out the operation, said: "We carry out around 40 of these operations a year and Ava is the youngest I have operated on.
"It went very well, the implant is in a perfect position."
How the implant works
The device which has been implanted in 15-month-old Ava Osker's ear is highly advanced and will help her hear for the first time.
The cochlea implant, which looks similar to a hearing aid, turns acoustic soundwaves into tiny electronic currents.
They stimulate the auditory nerve that transmits impulses to the brain, where they are understood as acoustic sensations.
The procedure is used for profoundly deaf people, and it will mean Ava will be able to understand speech without lip reading.
From Peterborough Today
Posted by 4HL on June 11, 2005 6:37 AM
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