3 yr old boy hears for first time

[Patti UT]

I saw the tail end of a news story a couple days ago about a 3 year old boy who had been born without hearing nerves. He underwent some kind of surgery and is hearing for the first time.  Did anyone else see this or hear (no pun intended  ) anything about this.  This could be huge news for thoes of us who lost a hearing nerve with tumor removal.... scouring the internet trying to find something.

[CHD63]

Hi Patti .....

I did not read this article, but my best guess is that this child had an auditory brainstem implant.  If you Google pediatric auditory brainstem implant you will find a number of articles dealing with this procedure.  Basically, it implants a hearing device that transmits sound directly to the brainstem.  It is not normal ear hearing but gives a definite new level of "hearing" for the profoundly deaf patient.  NF2 patients who have had ANs treated on both sides, with complete hearing loss, are sometimes candidates for this procedure, as well.

For those of us with single side deafness and still have one intact hearing nerve, other options to send the sound to our good side, would most likely be the first choice.

Clarice

[phantagrae]

Hi Patti .....

I did not read this article, but my best guess is that this child had an auditory brainstem implant.  If you Google pediatric auditory brainstem implant you will find a number of articles dealing with this procedure.  Basically, it implants a hearing device that transmits sound directly to the brainstem.  It is not normal ear hearing but gives a definite new level of "hearing" for the profoundly deaf patient.  NF2 patients who have had ANs treated on both sides, with complete hearing loss, are sometimes candidates for this procedure, as well.

For those of us with single side deafness and still have one intact hearing nerve, other options to send the sound to our good side, would most likely be the first choice.

Clarice

I did see the video and as I recall, this is exactly the procedure the boy had--an auditory brainstem implant that transmits sound directly to the brainstem.

[nftwoed]

Hi;
   I saw the article also.
   My feeling is a very young person will do better with an ABI than a late deafened adult.
   Thank goodness even though the boy was born w/o auditory nerves, his brain stem contained the necessary L/R auditory nucleus!

[Crazycat]

Hi Patty!

[Pam Fraley]

Palace posted something on this under a modeling of the brain post if you want to refer back to that post it was on June 22nd