Madurai GH gives free therapy to children post ear surgery

Doctors here said Tamil Nadu is the only state to provide free treatment for children born deaf and dumb by carrying out special tests for children below the age of six.

Also, for eligible children, cochlear implant surgery is done for free. But post the surgery, training in speech therapy was until now, given only in private centres which charged exorbitantly. It was to provide this facility for the children that the Audio Verbal Therapy was set up on Wednesday, said the doctors. N Dhinakaran, Head, ENT Department, Madurai GRH, said that of the 61 children, 50 have already undergone verbal therapy in private centres and the remaining 11 would be facilitated at the new Audio Verbal Therapy.

For first 3 months, every child IS given verbal training for 45 minutes individually. After that, group training would be given for nine months and six trainers would be involved. While a session of therapy in private hospitals would cost Rs one lakh, it would be provided for free under the Comprehensive CM’s Health Insurance Scheme.