THE WOODLANDS, Texas – According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, five in 1,000 kids have hearing loss.
Now more local hospitals are using cochlear implants to help children hear for the first time.
5-year-old Marianne Franco failed every hearing test since she was born.
Last week, Texas Children’s Hospital in The Woodlands turned on the cochlear implant she received weeks before. When an audiologist rang a bell she gave a grin. When they continued to ask her questions trying to gauge how much she could hear, her mom, Lizette, whispered behind her daughter’s head.
“I hear that,” Marianne said.
“What did you hear?” her mom asked.
Marianne is not sure yet how to associate what she’s hearing with the noise. She’s grown up lip reading and has been able to pick up amplified sounds through a hearing aid. However, it’s never been crisp sound or at a safe volume.
That's why her family opted for TCH in The Woodlands to surgically place the cochlear implant inside her head and give her the chance to hear.
“I think she's going to do fantastic with implant,” said Dr. Jill Beck, Texas Children’s Pediatric Otolaryngologist.
Beck said Marianne will have to learn how to associate noises with what they mean.
The implant in her head is sending a wireless signal to the outside processor. The nerve that’s being exercised for the first time is so fragile they have to send very soft sounds and she will gradually build up to more overtime.
Meanwhile, she has to learn what sounds to associate with words in both English and Spanish.
It will be exhausting, but Marianne is willing to work hard. To understand her motivation, you have to think like a child.
Minutes after her implant was on, she asked to go underwater.
She’s never heard the sound of water.
“You've been dreaming about this right?” Lizette asked.
According to Beck, that desire to connect sounds with objects and words that she's previously been able to lip-read (and hear some with a hearing aid) means that Marianne may be quicker at utilizing her implant than other patients.
Beck said Marianne is one of four kids in The Woodlands to get this kind of implant. As technology gets better, there's a lot of promise that this will become a more routine procedure, Beck said.