The Swasthya Seva Manch(Health Service Forum) of Vivekananda Kendra
Kanyakumari, Uttar Poorvanchal organized a free Cochlear Implant (a very
expensive imported lifelong hearing device) programme for deaf and dumb
children in association with Max Hospital, Saket, New Delhi and
Snehalaya, an NGO of Tinsukia working in the field of differently able
persons . Dr. Sanjay Sachdeva, Head of ENT and Head & Neck Surgery,
Max Hospitals, visited Tinsukia in the month of May 2017 to screen
patients.
In the screening camp six children were selected by him for the
surgery. After counseling the parents, it was decided that three
children will be send to Delhi for surgeries in July 2017. Accordingly
Urmi Moran (2yrs.and7months), Ristina Buragohain(4 yrs.) and Arpita
Gogoi(4yrs.and 6 months) were sent to Delhi along with their parents and
on 30th July, they got the approval for surgeries. In next three days,
they were operated at Max Hospital, Delhi by Dr.Sachdeva and his highly
skilled and dedicated team and the internal part of the device were
successfully implanted. After two days, they were sent back home.
After four weeks they had to visit Delhi again to switch on the
device and the 31st August 2017 was fixed for that purpose. Accordingly
they reached Max Hospital on that day and under the guidance of
Dr.Shruti Sahni (Senior Audiologist) and technicians, the devices were
switched on. It was a memorable moment for all of us to watch the
reactions of the children, who were listening to sounds first time in
their life.
The third and very crucial part of this entire exercise is speech
therapy, which will be given to these children very soon at Snehalaya
free of cost.
All these three children are from economically poor families
background. Without the help from Max Hospital, Saket,Delhi, Cochlear
(Australian manufacturer of the device), Amplifone (Audiology experts)
it wouldn’t had been possible to have these implants free of cost. In
this endeavor a major setback occurred due to relentless flood which
disrupted the train connectivity between North-East and the rest of the
country. A moment came when we all despaired that the second trip to
Delhi would be cancelled. At this crucial juncture the most encouraging
incident occurred, when on our request the Prime Ministers National
Relief Fund (PMNRF) immediately reserved flight tickets for children and
parents to Delhi.
After the successful completion of the first phase, we are planning
to organize the second screening camp in October 2017 to find more
economically poor deaf and dumb children. Feeling the need of this area
for more such programmes Dr Sachdeva has offered all possible
assistance to treat more deaf and dumb children and help them to lead a
normal life.
