Cochlear implant surgery performed at four children in Singhania Hospital in Vadodara with strict Covid measures

This surgery was stopped for a long time due to covid limitation

Child birth is a happy occasion for the family. But over time, when the parents realizes that he or she is deaf, the family become worried about their future. Medical science has now discovered a cure for congenital deafness through cochlear implant surgery. Since this is a very complicated and expensive surgery, poor and middle class parents cannot usually afford it to get their deaf child to speak and listen.

To overcome this compulsion, the surgery is performed free of cost under the National Child Health Program implemented by the Government of India through the Health Department of the State Government. The city’s Singhania E.N.T. hospital started this surgery in Vadodara as a collaborator of the above program and has so far rectifying the defects of 26 congenitally deaf children.

Dr. Ankit Singhania said, Before we started this surgery, the parents had to travel long distances to Surat or Ahmedabad for the surgery of the needy children. However the surgery was stopped everywhere due to the Corona pandemic epidemic. Four children from Vadodara were waiting for it to happen.

The condition is now a bit milder and the four children have recently undergone free surgeries under the above program, following strict covid precautions in the operating room and hospital. This is the only hospital in Gujarat where four children have undergone cochlear implants twice at a time.

Expressing the feeling that the District and Municipal Health System has a very encouraging contribution in rehabilitation including surgery and speech therapy for needy deaf children under the National Child Health Program, Dr. Ankit said that Chief District Health Officer Dr. Uday Tilawat organized the necessary assessment camps and encouraged such children to be screened and given the benefit of surgery. The district health system has given a lot of noble cooperation and support in its implementation.

In a private hospital this surgery has to cost Rs. 8 to 10 lakhs but here this and the required speech therapy is done free of cost under the above program of the Government of India. Needy parents can take advantage of this by contacting the Municipal Corporation or the District Health System to give an invaluable gift of speech and hearing to their deaf children. This surgery should be done in the age group of 1 to 5 years in case of congenital deafness.