A young man with a passion for music is experiencing sound clearly for the first time since early childhood. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader
A young man with a passion for music is experiencing sound clearly for the first time since early childhood, thanks to a cochlear implant that has restored his hearing.
This was made possible by a team of medical professionals and the Netcare Foundation.
“Ever since the implant was turned on, I could hear sounds, new things that I had never heard before,” Ryan Williams, 20, said a month after his cochlear implant was activated.
Professor James Loock, an ear, nose and throat surgeon and the audiology team of the Tygerberg Hospital and University of Stellenbosch Cochlear Implant Unit, identified Williams as an ideal candidate to benefit from a cochlear implant.
“We believe Ryan was born with normal hearing, but from the age of 3 he developed some progressive hearing loss. In 2012, by age 8, his hearing was severely affected. As a consequence of this hearing loss his speech and language development was delayed,” Loock explained.
Williams was diagnosed with enlarged vestibular aqueduct syndrome, which affects the inner ear and thereby the auditory sensory information (sound) received by the brain.
For four years he used hearing aids which only helped to a limited extent, but allowed him to be educated orally, rather than in sign language. He also relied heavily on lip reading.
“We could see that Ryan is a bright, ambitious young man who has a promising future, and a left cochlear implant would be of tremendous benefit to him. However, it would require a resource intensive specialised procedure and a cochlear implant device,” audiologist Marge van Dyk said.
Supported by HearUs, a non-profit organisation that provides support to those in need of cochlear implants, the Stellenbosch Cochlear Implant Unit was determined to find a way to help Williams.
They approached the Netcare Foundation with motivation to assist the young man, who aspires to study and enter a career in law enforcement.
The Netcare Foundation is an arm of the Netcare Group, enabling those who need it most to access health care, emergency medical services, specialised surgery, as well as human milk banks for the distribution of donated breast milk to premature babies.
“We are very grateful to the doctors and nurses, and everyone at Netcare N1 City Hospital. They were very nice to me when I was there for the operation,” Williams said.
Since his device was turned on, all has been going very well.
“I love listening to music, even though I struggled to hear it before. Now with the cochlear implants I can hear so much more clearly. For the first time I can actually hear the lyrics and the different layers of sound in the music.”
His mother, Nicolette Williams, said she noticed a marked difference in her son once the cochlear device was switched on.
“Since his hearing improved, he has been so much calmer and it is wonderful to see that he has more confidence in himself. My heart is full of gratitude towards every person involved who made it possible for Ryan to hear, and for him to follow his dream of studying to become a traffic officer.”
Williams meanwhile encouraged other people with hearing loss not to give up.
“There are a lot of different ways to solve problems and if you persevere and never lose hope, you can achieve things that you never thought possible at first,” he said.
Pretoria News
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