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McLaren Flint is The Only Hospital in Region to Offer Cochlear Implants to Restore Hearing
A neurotologist performed the first Cochlear Implant at McLaren Flint on Monday, December 17, 2007. The Medical Center worked with Wayne Robbins, D.O., to bring this "technical triumph" to mid-Michigan. Patients no longer have to travel to Detroit or Ann Arbor for this procedure, which is the only medical device designed to restore a human sense. The surgery marked McLaren’s commitment to the establishment of a cochlear implant program, and the hearing impaired population of mid and northern Michigan.
A neurotologist performed the first Cochlear Implant at McLaren Flint on Monday, December 17, 2007. The Medical Center worked with to bring this "technical triumph" to mid-Michigan. Patients no longer have to travel to Detroit or Ann Arbor for this procedure, which is the only medical device designed to restore a human sense. The surgery marked McLaren’s commitment to the establishment of a cochlear implant program, and the hearing impaired population of mid and northern Michigan.
"This is a doctor’s dream, it is an awesome thing to be able to bring hearing to people who want it, because it can dramatically change the quality of a patient’s life." states Wayne Robbins, D.O., F.A.O.C.O., the neurotologist who performed the first implantation at McLaren.
A cochlear implant is an electronic device designed to stimulate hearing in children and adults who have severe to profound hearing loss and can derive little or no benefit from hearing aids. The implant mimics how hearing works. A mini computer that looks like a hearing aid captures sounds outside of the ear, and sends them through the skin to an electrode implanted in the cochlea, the sense organ of hearing. This implant stimulates the patient’s cochlear nerve, which then transmits sound information to the brain where the perception of sound takes place.
The two major factors that help to determine how successful someone will be with the implant are how long the person has been deaf, and if the person has learned speech before going deaf. At this time, some of the best candidates for the implants are adults who have gradually lost their hearing over time, and children between the ages of two and five, as these are crucial years for speech and language development.
A patient’s implant will be activated approximately one month from its insertion. Although the patient will hear again immediately upon activation, it can take up to one year for the brain to completely adjust to hearing once again.
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