An implant that transforms the silence and life of children

Each morning Emilio of 15 years cleans his cochlear implant to adapt it to his ear and the silence takes life when listening to his parents to talk, while they accommodate the other implant to his sister Joaquina of 4 years. "Every day I have to take care of the sweat and the water so that it will not be damaged. It is part of me and I develop normally in school, with my friends. This is not unusual, "said Emilio.

For Tatiana Chicaiza to accept that her two children have hearing loss was not easy at all. The fear of the unknown led her to despair and to the search for help that she did with her husband Marco. "15 years ago we were unaware of this disease and there was no financial or equipment support. We asked for a loan from the bank of 25.000 dollars and the surgery for Emiliano was done in Quito. Now with Joaquina the story was different, since we joined the program of the Ministry of Public Health and everything was free at the Hospital Vicente Corral Moscoso. "

In this process of acceptance in the family and knowing how to take it with normality, it was important the participation of the Integral Stimulation Center of the University of Azuay, where the Oralization and Inclusion project for children with hearing disabilities was created. In this space they work with children from 2 to 5 years of age in the maximum development of their auditory activities.

Adriana León, teacher of the Center for Integral Stimulation, explained that children leaving the Center are ready to join a regular school. "Here we have 178 children with different disabilities, of them there are four with hearing disabilities. Children enter with their cochlear implant and here they are stimulated in oral language, "he said.

Marco Bustamante, father of the children, requested that this program of support by the Ministry of Public Health continue and that more public and private institutions be added, in order to obtain the necessary help for the change of the equipment and that the costs of them reduce.

Entry process

To be part of the program, parents who have children with profound deafness must perform audiometry exams at any Public Health Center, where they will analyze the child's hearing deficit to be transferred to the Hospital to be assessed and added to the list of qualified patients for the intervention. In the 2019 in Azuay there are 8 children on the list and nationally the wait is for 40 patients.

"A cochlear implant in the market has a cost of 19.000 approximately dollars and that adding the surgery, the value would reach 30.000 dollars per person. Patients from all the provinces of the country come to the hospital, leaving us as a reference at a national level, "said Oscar Chango, Hospital Manager Vicente Corral Moscoso. (OEM) (I)

International Cochlear Implant Day
Each February 25 in honor of the International Day of the Cochlear Implant, an event is held in the auditorium of the Regional Hospital with the beneficiaries of surgeries and implant changes. A date to reinforce the commitment with the national program of the Ministry of Public Health with the support of auditory technical help.

In the 2018 the Regional Hospital received 2.8 million dollars for: implant of 113 equipment to patients with profound deafness, change of 123 external processors that fulfilled their useful life of eight years, placement of 48 osseointegrated implants in patients with defects of formation middle ear, delivery of 16 bone markers and 1070 hearing aids.