Mum praises the RNTNEH
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posted
29/08/2007
expires
29/11/2007
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 The mother of the first child to be fitted with simultaneous bilateral cochlear implants by the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital has praised the “outstanding” care her daughter has received.
Three-year-old Noli Tebe’s life has been “transformed” after being implanted at the specialist hospital in Gray’s Inn Road, King’s Cross, which is part of the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust.
Noli was deafened by meningitis on Christmas Day 2005 when she was 18 months old. Before contracting the virus she had a vocabulary of 50 words and was starting to say sentences. After her illness, she stopped speaking completely and became profoundly deaf. She was fitted with hearing aids but four months later she still had no speech or hearing.
Noli was referred to Azhar Shaida, consultant ENT surgeon at the RNTNEH in April 2006 when he discussed fitting her with bilateral cochlear implants.
Her mum, Angela Tebe, said: “The way in which Noli lost her hearing was pretty traumatic so by the time we arrived at the RNTNEH we were feeling quite fractured. But the staff were excellent. They treated us with such sensitivity and care.”
In June 2006, Mr Shaida operated on Noli and she became the first child to be fitted with simultaneous bilateral cochlear implants at the RNTNEH.
A cochlear implant is an electrical device designed to restore a sensation of hearing to those who are severely to profoundly deaf in both ears and for whom hearing aids offer little benefit. Implantation requires an electrode to be inserted into the cochlea during surgery lasting two to three hours.
The RNTNEH founded its cochlear implant programme in 1982 and was the first of its kind in the UK. Since then the hospital has implanted more than 600 patients. The programme employs a wide range of professionals including ENT surgeons, audiological physicians, speech and language therapists, teachers of the deaf, specialist hearing therapists, audiological scientists, clinical psychologists and paediatricians.
Wanda Aleksy, the RNTNEH’s cochlear implant co-ordinator, said: “The RNTNEH is one of the largest specialist audiological centres in the UK and our cochlear implant programme is one of the best in the country. Many patients come from outside London and abroad to be treated here.
“Our service is accessible to people from all social, cultural and linguistic backgrounds and we see children who are just a few months old to adults over the age of 80.
“The number of patients we treat increases every year and we look forward to expanding the programme further in future.”
Noli has made excellent progress since being implanted. She has settled in mainstream nursery and attends ballet classes.
Mrs Tebe said: “We are confident that Noli will have caught up with her mainstream peers by the age of five. None of this would have been possible without implantation at such a critical stage in her language development.
“I am so grateful to Noli’s team - everyone is very committed and willing to go the extra mile. Noli’s teacher of the deaf, John Ford, even came to her nursery to give the staff advice and ideas on how best to support her, which was fantastic.
“The care Noli has received has gone far beyond having implants, the staff are really interested and involved in her life – I cannot fault them.”
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