Capital Hospital doctors perform first ‘Cochlear Implant’ surgery

Islamabad

A team of the ENT (ear, nose and throat) Department of the Capital Hospital, in collaboration with two specialists from the Royal ENT Hospital Bradford England, performed the first ever ‘Cochlear Implant’ surgery on two young children in the Capital Hospital.

The team leader said that the ‘Cochlear Implantation’ is the state of the art surgery for the hearing impaired children with non serviceable hearing. This surgery and implantation is a team work of ENT surgeons specialised in cochlear implant, Audiologist, anesthetist and Speech Therapist.

The deaf and mute children are a source of heavy stress for their parents and also a burden on the community as the community does not accept these children as a normal child. These children do not develop language and speech. Those who have mild hearing loss may get benefit from the hearing aids while those who are deaf and dumb don’t find any place anywhere.

The doctors said that the only hope for these children I a cochlear implant which is very costly item and is usually done in western countries and costs around Rs3 to 4 million.

“Being a developing country, a huge majority of our people can’t think of affording this surgery. Besides, this implant is also not available in Pakistan,” he added.

He said that similar surgery was performed earlier in Pakistan in Lahore and Karachi but it was the first time that it was done in the Capital Hospital. “The cost of this surgery is almost less than half of what it would if the patient has to be taken abroad for the procedure besides involving the hassle of getting visas, travelling cost and accommodation in a foreign country,” he added.

He said that the Capital Hospital Islamabad is the first government sector hospital of Islamabad/Rawalpindi where this surgery has been carried out successfully. The beneficiaries were 2-year-old Yansar Khan from Swabi and the 4-year-old Abdul Wahaj from Rawalakot, Azad Jammu & Kashmir.

The team of doctors, which performed the surgery included Dr Ghulam Saqlain, the Head of Department, ENT, Dr Jawad Ahmad and Dr Arshad Ali Anesthetist. They were joined by Dr Iqbal A. Khan and Dr Irfan (Audiologist) from the Royal ENT Hospital Bradford, England.  Both the children have been discharged and responding nicely to the surgery.