Born deaf and dumb, Pooja, the daughter of Naik M K Shah of the Rajputana Rifles underwent the live surgery after a year-long preparation, which was observed by leading ENT specialists from across the world.

Pooja was operated upon by Director General of Armed Forces Medical Services Vice Admiral V K Singh and the HoD (ENT) of the hospital Colonel S S Panwar.

"When she was two or three years old it could not be understood whether she can hear or not. Though the operation is conducted within the age limit from eight months to two years, we still decided to work on her condition. This case was detected much later. We gave her high decibel of sound which technically we call auditory stimulation. Her case is called plasticity. The hearing aid augments sound. But a cochlear implant acts as a transducers and it converts sound to electrical impulses and sends them to the brain," said Professor Dr. J M Hans.

A cochlear implant is a small, complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The implant was surgically placed under the skin behind one of Pooja's ear.

The implant has four basic parts: a microphone, which will pick up sound from the environment, a speech processor, which will select and arrange sounds picked up by the microphone, a transmitter and receiver which will receive signals from the speech processor and convert them into electric impulses and electrodes, which will collect the impulses from the stimulator and send them to the brain.

The implant, which has been imported from Australia, will not restore normal hearing for Pooja but will give her a useful auditory understanding of the environment and help her understand speech.

The surgery has been successfully conducted. The cochlear implant coupled with intensive post- implementation therapy is expected help Pooja to acquire speech, language, developmental and social skills.

"The surgery was successful. It went off smoothly with no complications. We were thinking that it might affect the facial nerves or some vessels could get damaged. She will be discharged in the next five days and her stitches will come out on the tenth day. The implant will soon be activated," says Vice Admiral V K Singh.

"She has been on ventilatory systems for quite some time. I am hoping that she will be able to hear everything as the operation has come out to be successful," says Brigadier P Bhargav.

A cochlear implant is different from a hearing aid. Hearing aids amplify sound. Cochlear implants compensate for damaged or non-working parts of the inner ear. When hearing is functioning normally, complicated parts of the inner ear convert sound waves in the air into electrical impulses.

These impulses are then sent to the brain, where a hearing person recognizes them as sound. A cochlear implant works in a similar manner. It electronically finds useful sounds and then sends them to the brain.

President A P J Abdul Kalam, whose fondness for children is well known, is personally taking interest in Pooja's surgery and will meet her at the Vigyan Bhavan on Saturday. (ANI)

Source: http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=153982&n_date=20051104