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Use of cochlear implants stirs controversy in deaf community - Press-Telegram
The Deaf Community is a group that emphasizes the use of American Sign Language, regardless of how well a person can hear. This community promotes ASL as its primary language.
Hearing children who have deaf parents also are considered part of the Deaf Community if they are fluent in ASL.
The Deaf Community opposed the use of cochlear implants. The 2000 documentary "Sound and Fury," by Josh Aronson, explored the controversy.
"I think that the attitudes in the Deaf Community have changed somewhat," said Mari Artinian, the mother who was featured in "Sound and Fury." "But I still feel that there is this perception that it really isn't as good as us 'hearing' people say it is.
"I see more and more Deaf children from Deaf families getting implanted, but their success isn't equal to others," she said. "You cannot possibly put on the implant one day and all of a sudden sound makes sense to you. I think many people in the Deaf Community who get the implant do have some false execrations about the device and then point to it later and say, 'You see, it really doesn't work.' This was the case when I visited Washington, D.C., to see my old deaf friends. I heard many stories of failure from adults implanted as late as their 40 s and 50 s. They had trouble with vertigo (a form of severe dizziness) and ringing in the ears, and were unable to even respond to their names by audition."
Artinian said that although today's deaf children with implants can function well in the hearing world, they still may want to have friends who have implants too.
"There needs to be an organization to foster relationships in this new population as it gets older," she said.
The Web site Hearing Loss Association of America offers networking opportunities, including connections to cochlear implant support groups. The site Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is a useful resource for parents of hearing-
impaired children looking for information about education, cochlear implants and early intervention. AG Bell holds a biennial convention in Orlando, Fla., for adults and families nationwide to network.
Additionally, families with hearing-impaired children age 5 and younger can contact the John Tracy Clinic in Los Angeles, at 213-748-5481 or JTC. The clinic offers free speech therapy and meetings for parents throughout the year and for two three-week sessions in the summer.
Recent developments
There have been significant developments, in recent years, with regard to cochlear implantation.
Bilateral implants have become the norm.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved bilateral implants (one implant for each ear) in 2007. Since then, the Let Them Hear Foundation - which was forced to close last week for financial reasons - has fought to force insurance companies to pay $120,000 per person for the two implants. Research conducted in 2006 by neuro-otologist Brian Robert Peters showed that deaf people with two implants have significantly better speech perception and sound localization. Now a surgeon at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, in its cochlear implant program, Peters and parents of deaf children pushed the FDA and insurance companies to provide deaf patients with two implants.
Technology has become more advanced.
Because more deaf people are receiving two implants, the speech-processing machines with which the implants communicate are being made smaller. Also, infants, whose ears are too small to hold the speech processors, can now wear them clipped to their clothes. Active adults can use these clips as well, so the processors don't fall off as much.
Criteria for receiving implants has expanded.
"As people have become more aware of the benefits of cochlear implants, implantation has become more accepted, even by many groups that initially were opposed, such as the Deaf Community," said Dr. William Luxford, a neuro-otologist at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles. "Over time, the criteria for implantation has changed. Patients who have more residual hearing than our initial patients and who were not candidates in the `old' days are now candidates for surgery." Luxford doesn't anticipate the disappearance of hearing aids, however, because they are helpful for many hearing-impaired patients. And some who have been profoundly hearing impaired for several decades may not benefit significantly from implantation. "A full evaluation performed by the implant team helps to determine who is an appropriate candidate," Luxford said. Such an evaluation involves a CT scan, MRI scan, blood work, psychological tests, social work consultations, family meetings, speech therapist evaluations and visits with a teacher of the deaf.
There are concerns about implant patients getting meningitis.
In 2002, researchers with the Centers for Disease Control determined that cochlear implant patients contract meningitis - an infection on the covering of the brain - more often than people without implants, said Luxford. "The risk of meningitis will always be present in implant patients - even those who are already implanted," he said. As a preventive measure, the CDC requires patients to receive vaccines before cochlear implant surgery.
And some processors are now partially waterproof.
The Deaf Community is a group that emphasizes the use of American Sign Language, regardless of how well a person can hear. This community promotes ASL as its primary language.
Hearing children who have deaf parents also are considered part of the Deaf Community if they are fluent in ASL.
The Deaf Community opposed the use of cochlear implants. The 2000 documentary "Sound and Fury," by Josh Aronson, explored the controversy.
"I think that the attitudes in the Deaf Community have changed somewhat," said Mari Artinian, the mother who was featured in "Sound and Fury." "But I still feel that there is this perception that it really isn't as good as us 'hearing' people say it is.
"I see more and more Deaf children from Deaf families getting implanted, but their success isn't equal to others," she said. "You cannot possibly put on the implant one day and all of a sudden sound makes sense to you. I think many people in the Deaf Community who get the implant do have some false execrations about the device and then point to it later and say, 'You see, it really doesn't work.' This was the case when I visited Washington, D.C., to see my old deaf friends. I heard many stories of failure from adults implanted as late as their 40 s and 50 s. They had trouble with vertigo (a form of severe dizziness) and ringing in the ears, and were unable to even respond to their names by audition."
Artinian said that although today's deaf children with implants can function well in the hearing world, they still may want to have friends who have implants too.
"There needs to be an organization to foster relationships in this new population as it gets older," she said.
The Web site Hearing Loss Association of America offers networking opportunities, including connections to cochlear implant support groups. The site Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is a useful resource for parents of hearing-
impaired children looking for information about education, cochlear implants and early intervention. AG Bell holds a biennial convention in Orlando, Fla., for adults and families nationwide to network.
Additionally, families with hearing-impaired children age 5 and younger can contact the John Tracy Clinic in Los Angeles, at 213-748-5481 or JTC. The clinic offers free speech therapy and meetings for parents throughout the year and for two three-week sessions in the summer.
Recent developments
There have been significant developments, in recent years, with regard to cochlear implantation.
Bilateral implants have become the norm.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved bilateral implants (one implant for each ear) in 2007. Since then, the Let Them Hear Foundation - which was forced to close last week for financial reasons - has fought to force insurance companies to pay $120,000 per person for the two implants. Research conducted in 2006 by neuro-otologist Brian Robert Peters showed that deaf people with two implants have significantly better speech perception and sound localization. Now a surgeon at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, in its cochlear implant program, Peters and parents of deaf children pushed the FDA and insurance companies to provide deaf patients with two implants.
Technology has become more advanced.
Because more deaf people are receiving two implants, the speech-processing machines with which the implants communicate are being made smaller. Also, infants, whose ears are too small to hold the speech processors, can now wear them clipped to their clothes. Active adults can use these clips as well, so the processors don't fall off as much.
Criteria for receiving implants has expanded.
"As people have become more aware of the benefits of cochlear implants, implantation has become more accepted, even by many groups that initially were opposed, such as the Deaf Community," said Dr. William Luxford, a neuro-otologist at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles. "Over time, the criteria for implantation has changed. Patients who have more residual hearing than our initial patients and who were not candidates in the `old' days are now candidates for surgery." Luxford doesn't anticipate the disappearance of hearing aids, however, because they are helpful for many hearing-impaired patients. And some who have been profoundly hearing impaired for several decades may not benefit significantly from implantation. "A full evaluation performed by the implant team helps to determine who is an appropriate candidate," Luxford said. Such an evaluation involves a CT scan, MRI scan, blood work, psychological tests, social work consultations, family meetings, speech therapist evaluations and visits with a teacher of the deaf.
There are concerns about implant patients getting meningitis.
In 2002, researchers with the Centers for Disease Control determined that cochlear implant patients contract meningitis - an infection on the covering of the brain - more often than people without implants, said Luxford. "The risk of meningitis will always be present in implant patients - even those who are already implanted," he said. As a preventive measure, the CDC requires patients to receive vaccines before cochlear implant surgery.
And some processors are now partially waterproof.