Diego's Story

Date of Birth: May 11 of 1994	Residence Santiago, Chile
Center of implant: University of Miami	Occupation / School Student
Surgeon: Thomas Balkany	Type of Implant: Nucleus Contour – Esprit 3 G
Audiologist: Annelle Hodges	Date of Implant: February 11, 2003
Therapists: Sylvia Rotfleisch / AVT- Los Angeles) Alina López / AVT-Miami Centro Comunica / Chile	Day Activation: March 04th, 2003

Background

Our son Diego was diagnosed with a profound bilateral hearing loss when he was a year and three months old. In Chile, immediately he began to use hearing aids and to rehabilitate by the Auditory-Verbal method. First of all, in order to complement and support our rehabilitation work we visited the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles (USA), institution through which we met miss Sylvia Rotfleisch (Certified Auditory Verbal Therapist), who until now has been a fundamental party of Diego’s rehabilitation process.

After 2 years of hard working, we learned that the role of the family is very important; Diego already had a basic functional language for a child of his age. In spite of his positive progresses, at that moment, we were informed about the alternative of a cochlear implant being Diego’s case considered as “borderline”. We preferred to wait thinking on an improvement in the technology of cochlear implants.

Later, at the age of 7, while he was in 2° grade at school, Diego could have a good communication, although with an inferior language level than children of his age. He used a lot of lip reading which he learned it in a natural way. It was never taught to him, because we always emphasized on his hearing development. At that age we realized, despite that he had good grades at school and he was well integrated with his classmates, that Diego was making an enormous effort in order to achieve his goals.

When he was 8 years old and after an exhaustive evaluation we decided for a cochlear implant. The right ear was implanted to him, with which he did not have any possibility to hear with hearing aids.
Diego received his cochlear implant in the Center of the University of Miami. We decided for this Center because its medical staff was recommended to us (staff of which we are absolutely grateful) and they said to us that the rehabilitation in Spanish language (his native language) was very important, and there existed the possibility to do it.

Hearing Skills

We lived in Miami the next 5 months after the surgery, in order that Diego could make the necessary mappings and received his auditory-verbal therapy.

Until now it has been a hard but simultaneously motivating work, because the progresses were rapidly noticed. At the third month after the implant, Diego could understand extensive speeches, only by hearing and talk by phone, although at the beginning only very simple things.

Nowadays, Diego is very communicative, he speaks quite fluid and with a voice tone close to the normal one, although he is still correcting certain problems. In good acoustic conditions, he has a high level of understanding. However in noisy and group situations, he has more difficulties, although he has been progressing. At school he uses an FM system, which helps him a lot in order to obtain a good level of understanding, which is mainly diminished by the gap between his language level and the one that corresponds to his age.

Nowadays, he speaks better on the telephone and he has the challenge of being able to listen and to understand the television, radio and computer as well as being able to learn the required language for his age.

Life with a cochlear nucleus implant

Diego has an absolutely normal life, although with more effort than children of his age. He studies at the same school of his four brothers, which is very demanding and with a lot of English.
Diego is very friendly, cheers and he is always alert about things that happen around him. He likes sports such as ski, swimming, golf, and tennis. He must have the precaution of protecting and / or removing his external implant when it is necessary, however he wishes some day where he can be in the water without removing it.

As a conclusion, we can say that the cochlear implant has been of great benefit to Diego, allowing him a better hearing condition than the one he had before the implant. It has allowed him to live more relaxed and integrated with his family and friends, and definitely much “connected” with the world that surrounds him.

Return to Top