Sound of silence yields to science
Cochlear implants open up a new world to thousands.
By JACOB H. FRIES, Times Staff Writer
Published October 26, 2007
ST. PETERSBURG - For the first 18 months of life, Rhyan Baker lived in silence. Born deaf, she didn't know her mother's voice, the gurgle of water through a drain, or the mechanical hum of an air conditioner in summer.
Then she got a cochlear implant, and the world instantly became a scary mix of noise. She sobbed inconsolably. But delight came the very next day, when she uttered her first word aloud, "Mama."
"This is our miracle," Rhyan's mother, Courtney, recalled. "The implant is her voice. ... People said she would never learn to speak, never say the words, 'I love you,' but she's proven them all wrong."
In growing numbers, experts say, deaf and hard-of-hearing adults and children like Rhyan are turning to cochlear implants, which pick up sounds, convert them into electronic impulses and send the information to the brain. According to 2005 national figures, about 22,000 adults and nearly 15,000 children now have them.
The trend also seems evident across the Tampa Bay area. In St. Petersburg, All Children's Hospital monitored and serviced the implants of 17 children in 2000. Now, it tracks more than 200.
In Tampa, at the Tampa Bay Hearing and Balance Center, the number of implant surgeries has more than doubled in the past three years, from about 35 to 80.
"The demand just continues to grow," said Tara O'Neill, regional director of the Southeast for Cochlear Americas, a manufacturer. "As a company, we've almost doubled the number of patients in the past five years."
Demand increasing
Makers of the implants and doctors attribute the surging demand to several factors, including improved technology, mandatory screenings for newborns and that most major insurance companies will now pay for implants in both ears.
But perhaps the most important factor, they say, is an increased awareness of cochlear implants, how they work and whom they can benefit. The Food and Drug Administration first approved their use in adults in 1984 and then in children in 1990.
"With the Internet, more people are finally beginning to understand the technology," said Shelly Ash, an audiologist at All Children's Hospital. "It's just a tool. Some people still think it's restorative surgery, like Lasik, but surgery is just the beginning."
The device is installed in two stages. First, the internal components - an antenna, a processor and an electrode that goes inside the inner ear, or cochlea - are surgically implanted. Then, the external system, which includes a microphone and speech processor, is attached.
Afterward patients undergo months of fine turning and, for those who have yet to develop language skills, years of speech therapy and auditory training.
Cochlear implants, however, are not without critics. Some opponents see them as a threat to sign language and deaf culture and object to the view that deaf people are broken and need to be fixed.
But considering that about 95 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents, who often struggle to learn sign language, it seems clear that the use of cochlear implants will only increase, experts say.
For the parents of Rhyan Baker, it wasn't an easy decision. They were initially against getting her an implant and tried out hearing aids first.
"She was just so tiny, and I thought it was some sort of brain surgery," said her father, Matt Baker, 32, of Sanford. "But when the hearing aides failed, we began to reconsider."
The effect was immediate and startling. After initial shock, she began saying words, and they began introducing her to the hearing world. Normally mundane moments - Rhyan banging a spoon on a plate and hearing the noise for the first time - became magical.
This summer she got a second implant, and now as a first-grader, Rhyan has caught up to her classmates and in some cases passed them, said her parents during a check-in meeting this week at All Children's Hospital.
She acts like an average 6-year-old, chatting, playing and fighting with her 2-year-old sister.
"God is using her in profound ways," said her mother, who plans to start an organization to help low-income parents buy the implants for their children. "He didn't make a mistake when making her."
Times staff researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report. Jacob H. Fries can be reached at jfries@sptimes.com or 727 893-8872.
How it works
Cochlear implants allow people with severe hearing loss to perceive sound. The device overcomes damage to tiny nerve fibers that line the cochlea by stimulating the remaining healthy nerves.
1. Sound is captured by a microphone, then filtered and digitized by a speech processor.
2. A transmitter sends the digital signals to the surgically implanted receiver.
3. The receiver converts the signals to electric impulses.
4. An electrode array picks up the impulses and stimulates remaining healthy nerve fibers, which send the sound information to the brain.
A fundraiser
Bolesta Center, an agency that helps hearing-impaired children hear using special techniques and cochlear implants, is having a Halloween-themed fundraiser on Saturday. It is open to the public. Tickets cost $100. For more information, call (813) 932-1184, ext. 23, or visit the group's Web site, www.bolestacenter.org.