Last month, three-year-old Annabelle Sonmez, who was born profoundly deaf, joined hundreds of other children whose lives have been transformed by ear implants for a day out at the Legoland theme park in Windsor.
The event marked the tenth anniversary of Great Ormond Street Hospitals cochlear implant programme and was organised by the hospital with support from Cochlear Europe, which provides the programme with the high-tech implants. Annabelle was the 200th child to benefit from the programme.
Dr Kaukab Rajput, consultant audiological physician at Great Ormond Street, is delighted that the hospital was able to organise an event involving so many children whose lives have been transformed. She says, The celebration was a great way for families to get together to share their similar experiences.
The cochear implant works as an electrode device that is inserted into the inner ear. It transmits electric signals to the brain via the hearing nerve so that the brain can understand sound. Patients suitable for cochlear implantation are often those rendered completely deaf by a genetic defect or meningitis. Cochlear implants are only used when traditional hearing aids are of limited benefit. The earlier a child who could use one is identified and assessed, the better.
Silence to speech
Nobody knows why Annabelle was born without hearing, which is the case for more than half the children who are born deaf in the UK. It took her parents, Samantha and Huseyin Sonmez from London, nearly two years to have her deafness confirmed.
At first, Annabelle was diagnosed as having moderate hearing loss and she was given hearing aids. She made frequent hospital visits. But at two years old she had no speech and was only able to laugh and cry. Her parents were referred to Great Ormond Street Hospital, where Annabelle was given more powerful hearing aids. But when her third birthday came she still could not speak a word. Finally, Annabelle was given a cochlear implant this summer.
Samantha says, She has moved from being an almost silent child, apart from crying and laughing, to one who can now react to loud noises she will look at the sky if she hears a plane, or turn if a lorry passes her on the road. She even marches with her toy drum.
It is hoped that most children given cochlear implants will begin to understand and use some single words. It will be the best thing ever when I hear her say "Mummy" for the first time, says Samantha. Next September Annabelle will start nursery in a mainstream school that has a special impaired hearing unit.
There are approximately 23,000 deaf children in the UK - thats two children born deaf every day. But more than 1,800 children have had their lives transformed by cochlear implants from Great Ormond Street and other hospitals.
