By Nayera Yasser
For many children born each year, the simple action of hearing their mothers’ voice is a far shot from a dream that requires a long journey of medication.
After years of research and training, Wadi El-Nil hospital celebrated their fourth successful year of cochlear implantation surgeries earlier this week. In the presence of the Minster of Health, Adel Adawi, and 70 former patients, the hospital saluted the doctors, the kids and the charity organisations that made it all possible.
The hospital has a specialised team that consists of six different doctors. Together, they have managed to change the lives of 600 kids over the course of four consecutive years.
Wadi El-Nile is the only hospital that offers more than the regular six-month post surgery treatment. Two of the team are speech-language pathologists, who work with patients on their speech skills after the implantation for the duration of up to two years, unlike other hospitals.
“This year we are celebrating the recovery of 70 children, who were treated last year, plus the star patients who have developed tremendously since their surgeries,” Dr Ahmed Ali Abd El-Menaam, a member of the team, said. “The more their health and language develop the more we salute and celebrate them in order to encourage them further.”
Abd El-Menaam also said the hospital is always keen on nurturing the patients, and helps them enrol in normal schools just like any other student.
As for the surgery and treatment’s cost, which can exceed EGP 100,000, Abd El-Menaam confirmed that the medical insurance pays around EGP 90,000 while charity organisations and specialised TV programmes take care of the rest.
Those organisations are introduced to the families of the patients through the hospital as well.
“There are several programmes that finance this, only three kids fully paid for their surgery while the rest of the 70 used the help of the care programmes,” he said.
Ibrahim is one of the success stories. At the age of six, he started suffering from profound hearing loss which affected his life in all forms, and kept him from joining a public school. However, a year ago his father found Wadi El-Nil hospital and their team, which operated on Ibrahim.
Today Ibrahim is a 1st grade student who can speak and hear with the help of a hearing device which the hospital offered and maintains.
