By: Jean Johnson for Medtech1Part Two Part One
In the first part of this series, Medtech1 introduced cochlear implants and traced the history of this state-of-the-art technology. We also introduced Jaki Scheckter. Scheckter received two implants in November of 2005.
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The following is adapted from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders:
Use of a cochlear implant requires both a surgical procedure and significant therapy to learn or re-learn the sense of hearing.
Not everyone performs at the same level with this device. The decision to receive an implant should involve discussions with medical specialists, including an experienced cochlear-implant surgeon.
The process can be expensive and health insurance may or may not cover the cost.
Surgical implantations are almost always safe, although complications are a risk factor, just as with any kind of surgery.
An additional consideration is learning to interpret the sounds created by an implant. This process takes time and practice. Speech-language pathologists and audiologists are frequently involved in this learning process.
Prior to implantation, all of these factors need to be considered. |
Who Can Benefit
The only problem, according to the New York Times, is that “people who have been profoundly deaf for many years may have a harder time learning to interpret speech through cochlear implants because the part of the brain normally used for hearing can, over the years, become diverted to serve other functions.”
Thus, good candidates include adults who have not lived long with hearing loss and very young children between ages two and six, a period of life when speech and language skills are developing. To enable even younger children to take advantage of strides in technology, in 2000 the FDA lowered the age of eligibility to 12 months of age for one type of cochlear implant.
Although Scheckter has had lifelong hearing problems, he did live in what he describes as ‘a normal hearing environment’ and was therefore a suitable candidate. “My mom had German measles while she was pregnant with me, so I was born with severe to profound hearing loss. I wore hearing aids from around the age of two until my cochlear implant surgery in November, 2005,” he wrote in an email message to Medtech1. “During my life with hearing aids, I went to special schools at a young age to learn oral speaking. And my high school life was at a normal hearing school where I succeeded with no problems. My whole life I’ve been in a normal hearing environment. I’ve hardly had any friends who have had hearing loss.”
Scheckter’s perseverance may be in part a result of his athletic past. “Due to my family’s racing history, I pretty much raced my whole life growing up. Raced motocross for five years, and before that mini-cross bikes for a few years for fun. I also swam for the ‘first team’ at my junior and high schools. I was pretty much an active and competitive kid who liked to have fun. Then at age 16, I switched to open wheel racing for about five years. I won many races including two championships, one in South Africa and one here in the States.”
Still, Scheckter has had his work cut out for him learning to hear with his implants. As the NICDC points out “hearing through a cochlear implant is different from normal hearing and takes time to learn or relearn.
“On my first day of activation,” he said, “Sarah [a fellow bilateral implant recipient who Scheckter was referred to] told me not to expect too much because it will be soft to start off with. So I was just on a low expectation kind of attitude and worked on it from there. I heard lots of new stuff, but it all sounded the same, which was expected. So I was just focusing on the positives the implants could bring in the long term.
“Right now,” Scheckter wrote ten months after his implants were placed, “my hearing is way above the league I had before the surgery with hearing aids. Right now I can speak a bit on the phone. My communication and listening to people in noisy environments has vastly improved.
“Lately music is great, too,” Scheckter noted with enthusiasm. “I’m starting to pick up some words on the songs. I like mostly any types, but my favorite is U2.”
Post-Implant Training Necessary to Learn to Hear with Cochlear Implants
Training with a speech therapist and testing with an audiologist during activation was needed in Scheckter’s case. “The first time we worked with it was weird – it was all high pitch. Sounds like people screaming! So I listened to music all the time to try to get used to it and made a little improvement.”
By the third day, though, Scheckter’s report was cautiously optimistic. “The quality of sound is not great, it was like rough at low frequency. Left ear, smooth and creamy! We tried to sort out the right side, but still not much luck. I went home with both ears working, but the right was overwhelming the left ear.”
The fourth day was better, but Scheckter could barely hear out of his left ear, and could hear everything but high frequencies out of his right ear. By March, four months after surgery, it was a different story.
“Music is definitely getting better – and one time at work, one of the guys at the warehouse asked me to take a package to one of the ladies upstairs. After she took the package, she had her back to me and said, ‘how are you this morning?’ I replied ‘good, thanks’ and gave her the package.”
It wasn’t until Scheckter was walking out of Tammy’s office that he realized what happened. “I said ‘whoa, I heard that! Her back was to me and I didn’t even notice!”
Scheckter and his team didn’t stop there, of course. By July 2006, his speech therapist Mary Jones was helping him identify aspects that could further improve his hearing. For example, she coached Scheckter on how accents impact a person’s perception of words and sentences – particularly accents common to South Africa where Scheckter is from, the American South, and the Middle West.
Finally, Jones helped him differentiate how the accent on words within sentences can change meanings: SHE went to the movie. (Who) She went to the MOVIE (Where) She WENT to the movie. (What did she do?) Scheckter recommends working with a Certified Auditory-Verbal Specialist with cochlear implant experience.
That Jaki Scheckter and others who are taking advantage of cochlear implants are able to re-learn to hear is really nothing short of a miracle. Twenty-first century technology is truly making headway. For that, we can all be thankful.
