Five more GH to get Cochlear implant facilities

Stating that 12 medical college hospitals already have these facilities, Dr G Selvarajan, Additional Director of Medical Education, speaking at the programme on cochlear implants at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (SRIHER) on Saturday, said that the facilities will be introduced in five more hospitals.

He added that under TN Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme, more than 3,000 surgeries were done so far. “To strengthen the after-surgery audio, speech and language therapy, the strength of students pursuing the bachelor’s degree in Audiology and Speech, Language Pathology at the Madras Medical College will also be increased. Besides, the PG programme for the same course will also be started shortly.”

He also divulged that all the ENT doctors in the district and taluk Head Quarter Hospitals will be provided surgical training. “There are a number of reasons why people develop hearing loss. It is our duty to ensure there adequate training in this regard,” he stated.

Dr A Ravi Kumar, Professor of ENT, Head and Neck Surgery, SRIHER, said, “If worldwide researches are successful, we will soon have a smaller and fully implantable device with no external component. Also, robotic surgery will be used in the future for cochlear implants.”

Narrating their journey from a world of silence to the world of sound, music and dance, children of various age groups who hadundergone the surgery sang, danced, performed skits to depict their arduous, rewarding journey so far.