Cochlear Implants
Today I got to help in a small way with an attempt at something that hasn’t been done before to our knowledge–helping deaf patients hear with the aid of a device called a cochlear implant. That itself is not new at all, but doing it in the middle of Africa, with the aid of the Internet, is new.
The implants are very small–and very expensive–gadgets that are surgically placed into the inner ear and in a limited way duplicate its function. Now, I don’t have much more knowledge than that about the implants, but I was called on for computer help. When I got to the workshop I was surprised to find a whole group there: Dr. Anthis our ENT surgeon, some doctors from the government hospital (JUTH), the ENT technician, two patients, and maybe more.
From what I understand, the implants are inserted surgically but then must be programmed several weeks later so that they will produce a useful level of sound. No one here knows how to do that, so it’s being tried over the Internet as sort of a demonstration of concept. I think it’s unlikely that the implants will ever be widely used here because of the expense, but at least the few patients Dr. Anthis is working with may regain some hearing.
My own small part was doing some computer debugging because the patients were there, the audiologist in the US was online, the doctors were there, but the computer would not connect to the programming device. The bad news: Dr. Anthis ended up telling the patients to come back next week because they had already waited so long. The good news is that after still more fiddling I found and fixed the problem, a program installed sometime in the past that no one knew was there. The perils of using a second-hand computer without doing a fresh install!
The pediatric service is unusually light at the moment, which is good because we have a new resident and no intern. It is really so great to work with these physicians in training who put in so much work, are as devoted to the patients as they are to the science of medicine, and have spiritual perspective. One of the residents yesterday, at morning report, told how he had explained the gospel to two patients the day before, during routine outpatient visits, and that both had said that they wanted to turn from their current ways and to follow Christ.