Cochlear Implant giving hope to young lives @ JSS Hospital, Mysore JSS Hospital, Mysore has always served the needy people with high quality health care. It extended its service to profound hearing impaired people with Cochlear implant.The work started in this direction in 2014 by Dr.Bharathi M B. In 2017, with the help of Dr. Nataraj, Director, JSS Speech and Hearing and Dr.Bharathi M B, Dr.Shankar Medikere JSS Hospital, Mysore started Cochlear implantation programme under ADIP scheme. Dr.Col M Dayananda, Director –JSS Hospital Mysore and Dr. Guruswamy Medical Superintendent –JSS Hospital Mysore supported this programme. JSS Hospital Mysore Cochlear implant team has successfully performed 21 cochlear implant surgeries on children under the age of 5 who were born deaf. The average cost of a Cochlear Implant is approximately 8 to 8.5 lakhs. However, surgery is being performed free of cost for children belonging to BPL families under the central government ADIP scheme. These children then undergo intensive habilitation at the JSS institute of Speech and Hearing for a minimum period of 2 years. The team headed by Dr Bharathi MB, Senior Professor in the Department of ENT , JSS Medical college and Hospital assisted by Dr Sandhya D, Assistant Professor , Department of ENT , JSS Medical College AND Hospital as well as Implant Audiologists Dr Saransh Jain, Mr Vipin, Ms Akshatha and Ms Monica all from JSS college of Speech and Hearing , Mysore conducted a review of all the patients who have received a Cochlear Implant at JSS to assess their performance. Most of the children were observed to have made remarkable progress in their speech and language development and proudly showcased their newly acquired skills and abilities. Many have been able to make an entry into main stream schools as told by the happy parents. However, a small number of patients coming from remote areas did mention the difficulties in accessing habilitation due to the lockdown and the fear of the ongoing pandemic. Although efforts have been made by the institute to conduct online habilitation sessions, the lack of a smart phone or good internet connectivity played a major hindrance to these children. Measures have in turn been taken to give them additional sessions and reinforce the lessons so that they continue to make constant progress. The aim of our Implant team is to be able to provide hearing and speech without delay to all the needy children and at minimum expenditure as most of these children belong to poor socioeconomic strata.
