30 years since first CI surgery today :)

R2D2

R2D2

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Bionic ear turns 30 - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The professor behind one of Australia's best known inventions, the bionic ear, will today celebrate the implant's 30th anniversary.

Professor Graeme Clark performed the first cochlear implant at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital on August 1, 1978.

About 80 people, including recipients, theatre staff, engineers and fundraisers will attend today's celebration in Melbourne, some coming from as far away as Singapore.

Professor Clark says he is proud the bionic ear is an Australian development, from research right through to industrial development.

"Well that's been the joy, really, that as a result of the development by Cochlear Limited here in Australia, 120,000 people worldwide now have hearing as a result, in some 80 countries," he said.

"There's still a need to achieve I guess my ultimate goal and that's near-normal hearing.

"It's wonderful for speech now for many, and children can have near normal speech and language, but they still don't get the same high-fidelity sound that normal-hearing people get."
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No...I wasn't invited and we have the vomiting bug in the house! I bet my surgeon is going though.
 
Happy Birthday Cochlear!! :) I'll be 30 this month too...so yeah, hard to believe!

I wonder if anyone here had the implants 30 years ago?

I would love to go to the festivity , but alas, I'm stuck here in hot Las Vegas. :-D
 
Are they saying 30 years with Nucleus cochlear implant or cochlear implants that are not existent today? Some of the people that have had the oldest cochlear implant have been re-implanted.
 
:ugh: I did not realize that this CI has been going on to be implanted for thirty years. No wonder, every inventors or medical professionals including AGBELLers think that we can get us to speak better speech and trying to speak clear language without the ASL or sign language and also to be able to hear normally like hearies. **shaking my head** I am just glad that I have my hearing aid and not get implanted into my brain. I would rather go natural and just take the hearing aid off for swimming or shower or involve in sports or any other activities. Trying to hear clearly is never perfect and we will always be deaf. :nana:
 
Bebonang said:
:ugh: I did not realize that this CI has been going on to be implanted for thirty years. No wonder, every inventors or medical professionals including AGBELLers think that we can get us to speak better speech and trying to speak clear language without the ASL or sign language and also to be able to hear normally like hearies. **shaking my head** I am just glad that I have my hearing aid and not get implanted into my brain. I would rather go natural and just take the hearing aid off for swimming or shower or involve in sports or any other activities. Trying to hear clearly is never perfect and we will always be deaf. :nana:
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Does it ever end?
 
I would rather go natural and just take the hearing aid off for swimming or shower or involve in sports or any other activities. Trying to hear clearly is never perfect and we will always be deaf.
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Well, the BTE CI is just like removing it like hearing aids. I don't know what you're making different from the HA. You can play sports, shower and swim.

I know. We know that we are still deaf, but we know that CI is a tool to help hear better than hearing aids can provide.

Like many technologies, they improve all the time.

Does it ever end?
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I think there will always be ignorants that still need us to bring awareness.
 
^^ Ditto....

We (CI) still can do things normally as normal HA person would do and without them we are still deaf...

Happy birthday Cochlear... old as me now!
 
Bebonang said:
:ugh: I did not realize that this CI has been going on to be implanted for thirty years. No wonder, every inventors or medical professionals including AGBELLers think that we can get us to speak better speech and trying to speak clear language without the ASL or sign language and also to be able to hear normally like hearies. **shaking my head** I am just glad that I have my hearing aid and not get implanted into my brain. I would rather go natural and just take the hearing aid off for swimming or shower or involve in sports or any other activities. Trying to hear clearly is never perfect and we will always be deaf. :nana:
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Um just to be clear on this - you think the implant goes in our brains? :laugh2:

And you think we wear our speech processors in the shower and when swimming? :laugh2:

I think you need to set yourself straight a bit on some facts and educate yourself about CIs. Relax and chill! We are normal, nice people who are probably more deaf than you in the shower, swimming pool and at nighttime. I like being able to switch off sometimes just as much as you :)
 
I did celebration at the eye and ear hospital.... That day, test my maps for both CIs. :-P
 
Thank You Graeme Clark and Cochlear. I recently drove 400 miles using GPS. There is no way I could have done this a year ago before my CI was activated. I would not have heard the directions.
 
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