- Annabelle Lawless, one, was born with profound hearing loss in April 2016
- She received hearing aids and heard her mother’s voice for the first time in July
- The toddler from Idaho is able to hear more clearly due to her cochlear implant
Cheyenne Roundtree For Dailymail.com
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For parents Sarah Jo and Tyler Lawless, it was a day they had been waiting for since they learned their little girl was born profoundly deaf.
One-year-old Annabelle Lawless was given the chance to hear her mother’s voice for the first time last summer thanks to a hearing aids.
But the device was limited: she couldn’t hear speech clearly and it wouldn’t be permanent.
Since then, doctors in Boise, Idaho, have been trying to find a more sophisticated solution.
Finally, on April 24, they implanted a hearing device into her cochlear.
And Monday, the moment came when Annabelle had her cochlear implant switched on, letting her hear clear sounds like any other toddler for the first time in her life.
Annabelle Lawless, one, had her cochlear implant activated and was able to hear more clearly. The tot from Boise, Idaho, previously made news when she first heard her mother’s voice when she received hearing aids last July
CAN A STEM CELL JAB TREAT HEARING LOSS?
Scientists are working on a jab containing stem cells (which have the potential to develop into many different kinds of cell) to treat hearing loss.
Researchers at the Seoul St Mary’s Hospital in South Korea injected deaf guinea pigs with stem cells derived from donated human placentas.
They found that, after several weeks, hearing tests showed the animals had some hearing function restored.
There were also more hair cells (which are found in the inner ear and are vital for relaying sound) in the damaged areas, suggesting some type of regeneration, according to results published in the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology.
Additional research is now needed before the therapy can be tested on human patients.
When the implant was activated Annabelle’s blue eyes went wide behind her glasses because she could hear all the sounds her toys were making.
The child quickly looks around before she seems overwhelmed and starts to blubber.
Sarah Jo steps in and talks to the child and comforts her, shaking toys and trying to see if she responds positively to the new sounds.
The mother said to ABC 6: ‘It’s a huge milestone. It’s kind of a bigger deal than a birthday or anything. This is what we have been working towards.
‘I was shaking. It was kind of surreal. I am talking to my daughter and I talk to her everyday but I am talking to her and she has got a hearing device on her head.’
The couple first realized their newborn wasn’t hearing correctly when she was one month old.
Annabelle was born ‘very, very tiny’ in April 2016 and had to stay in the NICU.
While she was being treated, the newborn didn’t pass the hospital’s hearing test.
Doctors weren’t concerned and chalked it up to the infant still having fluid in her ears, which is common.
However, the parents were concerned a few weeks later when nothing was startling Annabelle, not even the dog barking or the washing machine door being slammed loudly.
Annabelle was brought to the Idaho Elks Hearing and Balance Center where doctors informed the Lawless family the baby had profound hearing loss.
The first step of the treatment plan called for hearing aids, which would allow Annabelle to be able to notice sounds.
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This is the moment Annabelle’s device was turned on and she could hear sounds clearly
And the second part of the plan was to give her a cochlear implant when she was ready.
In 2000, the FDA approved cochlear implants for use beginning at 12 months of age.
Annabelle had the implant surgery on April 24 and once she was healed, the device was activated a month later on May 22.
Dr. Karrie Pargman, an audiologist as St. Luke’s, said to ABC 6: ‘For those patients who have a severe to profound hearing loss, the hearing aids can’t give enough information to the brain to really hear well and that’s when a cochlear implant does a better job.’
Around two to three children out of 1,000 in the United States are born with some hearing loss in one or both ears, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
More than 90 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents and the established treatment plan for children with severe to profound hearing loss are cochlear implants.
Cochlear implants are small electronic devices which have two parts. One sits behind the ear, while a second is surgically placed underneath the skin.
The devices can’t restore normal hearing, but they can help a deaf person understand speech better.
Implants bypassed damaged parts of the ear and directly stimulate the auditory nerve.
These signals are then sent to the brain, which recognizes them as sound.
Speech therapy is essential for young children with a cochlear implant as it can help users develop language and literacy skills similar to their friends.
HOW DOES A COCHLEAR IMPLANT WORK?
Cochlear implants are small hearing devices fitted under the skin behind the ear during surgery.
They have an external sound processor and internal parts, including a receiver coil, an electronics package and a long wire with electrodes on it (an electrode array).
The external processor takes in sound, analyses it and then converts it to signals that are transmitted across the skin to an internal receiver-stimulator, which sends the signals along the electrode array into a part of the inner ear called the cochlea.
The signal is then sent to the brain along the hearing nerve as normal.
This means cochlear implants are only suitable for people whose hearing nerves are functioning normally.
The implants cannot restore normal hearing but they can give a deaf person a good representation of sounds, helping them understand speech.
Whereas hearing aids amplify sound so they can be detected by damaged ears, cochlear implants bypass damaged parts of the ear and directly stimulate the auditory nerve.
Signals generated by the implant are sent via the auditory nerve to the brain, which recognizes the signals as sound.
Hearing through an implant is different from normal hearing and takes time to get used to it.
It allows people to recognize warning signals, understand their environment and enjoy conversations with people.
If a cochlear implant is recommended, it will be inserted into the ear (or both ears) during an operation and switched on a few weeks later.
Source: NHS Choices
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