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Benefit planned for deaf child
NICOLE WEIS, Staff Writer
09/23/2006
Daily Nonpareil - Benefit planned for deaf child
Staff photo/Nicole Weis - Emilee Hansen, 22, holds her 9-month-old daughter, Kynnedi, who was born with a profound hearing disability. A benefit to raise money for Kynnedi to get two cochlear implants is being held at the Eagles Club in Glenwood today.
GLENWOOD - If it weren't for the pink miniature hearing aids tucked behind 9-month-old Kynnedi Anderson's ears, no one would ever know she was born deaf.
The happy baby girl babbles and coos just as most young toddlers do, but the difference is, Kynnedi can't hear herself. Her world is silent.
Doctors diagnosed Kynnedi with severe to profound bilateral hearing loss shortly after she was born Dec. 6, 2005. Her mother, Emilee Hansen, and her father, Jake Anderson, both of Glenwood, were devastated.
"The hard thing was that we didn't have an explanation why," recalled Hansen. "We still don't know what caused it."
Kynnedi's parents wanted her to have every opportunity to hear the sounds around her, so they had their daughter fitted for hearing aids at 2-months-old. In August, the couple found out the hearing aids weren't helping their daughter.
"We thought we saw a response," Hansen said with disappointment.
Still eager for Kynnedi to have the chance to listen to her parents tell her how much they adore her, Hansen and Anderson sought other options. That's when they heard about cochlear implants.
Cochlear implants consist of a microphone and speech processor placed behind the ear along with a receiver placed under the skin behind the ear. The speech processor digitizes sound signals and sends them to a transmitter, which then sends the coded signals to the receiver. The receiver delivers the signals to electrodes that have been surgically inserted in the cochlea, stimulating the auditory nerve fibers, creating the ability to hear, a sense Hansen said many people take for granted.
According to Hansen, cochlear implants would "bring Kynnedi from a no sound world into a hearing world."
The catch is that each implant costs approximately $45,000 and insurance will only cover one, not including the expenses associated with surgery. While Hansen is aware Kynnedi could wait to have the surgery or just get one cochlear implant, she knows it would be best for her daughter to get two implants, as soon as possible.
"I didn't want to put her through surgery, but it's better to have it done when she's younger," said Hansen, a full-time accounting student. "When the insurance company said they would only cover one (cochlear implant), that didn't faze us. We said, 'We'll cover the other one.'"
Research shows that the earlier a pre-lingual profoundly deaf child gets a cochlear implant, the better the chance for fully developing hearing and speech is. If a child has no sound input by a certain time, the ability to form parts of speech is lost forever, Hansen said. The mother of two - Hansen also has a 4-year-old daughter named Kylyn - compares getting just one cochlear implant to hear to correcting just one eye in order to see.
"We want her to adjust to hearing with both ears at the same time," Hansen said. "They say from the research they've done that it works on some people and some it doesn't. I think she'll be able to hear pretty well."
With one cochlear implant, Kynnedi would be able to hear noises and voices somewhat clearly, but with two, she could possibly hear as well as someone without a hearing disability.
"Until the implants we really have a loss of communication," said Hansen. "She's missing out on the world; she's missing out on so much. It's hard to know she's at that age when she should be saying 'Da-Da.'"
But Hansen refuses to look at the glass as half-empty.
"It's kind of nice when (Kylyn) is yelling and (Kynnedi) still sleeps," she joked.
For now, the hearing aids remain attached to Kynnedi's ears, so she can get used to the feeling of cochlear implants. Hansen hopes her daughter will undergo the surgery before her first birthday. Though there are several risks associated with the six- to eight-hour procedure, Hansen said giving her daughter the chance to hear was something she couldn't pass up.
Asked how it will feel when her daughter hears her mother's voice for the first time, Hansen eyes filled up with tears. "I'll probably cry," she said.
NICOLE WEIS, Staff Writer
09/23/2006
Daily Nonpareil - Benefit planned for deaf child
Staff photo/Nicole Weis - Emilee Hansen, 22, holds her 9-month-old daughter, Kynnedi, who was born with a profound hearing disability. A benefit to raise money for Kynnedi to get two cochlear implants is being held at the Eagles Club in Glenwood today.
GLENWOOD - If it weren't for the pink miniature hearing aids tucked behind 9-month-old Kynnedi Anderson's ears, no one would ever know she was born deaf.
The happy baby girl babbles and coos just as most young toddlers do, but the difference is, Kynnedi can't hear herself. Her world is silent.
Doctors diagnosed Kynnedi with severe to profound bilateral hearing loss shortly after she was born Dec. 6, 2005. Her mother, Emilee Hansen, and her father, Jake Anderson, both of Glenwood, were devastated.
"The hard thing was that we didn't have an explanation why," recalled Hansen. "We still don't know what caused it."
Kynnedi's parents wanted her to have every opportunity to hear the sounds around her, so they had their daughter fitted for hearing aids at 2-months-old. In August, the couple found out the hearing aids weren't helping their daughter.
"We thought we saw a response," Hansen said with disappointment.
Still eager for Kynnedi to have the chance to listen to her parents tell her how much they adore her, Hansen and Anderson sought other options. That's when they heard about cochlear implants.
Cochlear implants consist of a microphone and speech processor placed behind the ear along with a receiver placed under the skin behind the ear. The speech processor digitizes sound signals and sends them to a transmitter, which then sends the coded signals to the receiver. The receiver delivers the signals to electrodes that have been surgically inserted in the cochlea, stimulating the auditory nerve fibers, creating the ability to hear, a sense Hansen said many people take for granted.
According to Hansen, cochlear implants would "bring Kynnedi from a no sound world into a hearing world."
The catch is that each implant costs approximately $45,000 and insurance will only cover one, not including the expenses associated with surgery. While Hansen is aware Kynnedi could wait to have the surgery or just get one cochlear implant, she knows it would be best for her daughter to get two implants, as soon as possible.
"I didn't want to put her through surgery, but it's better to have it done when she's younger," said Hansen, a full-time accounting student. "When the insurance company said they would only cover one (cochlear implant), that didn't faze us. We said, 'We'll cover the other one.'"
Research shows that the earlier a pre-lingual profoundly deaf child gets a cochlear implant, the better the chance for fully developing hearing and speech is. If a child has no sound input by a certain time, the ability to form parts of speech is lost forever, Hansen said. The mother of two - Hansen also has a 4-year-old daughter named Kylyn - compares getting just one cochlear implant to hear to correcting just one eye in order to see.
"We want her to adjust to hearing with both ears at the same time," Hansen said. "They say from the research they've done that it works on some people and some it doesn't. I think she'll be able to hear pretty well."
With one cochlear implant, Kynnedi would be able to hear noises and voices somewhat clearly, but with two, she could possibly hear as well as someone without a hearing disability.
"Until the implants we really have a loss of communication," said Hansen. "She's missing out on the world; she's missing out on so much. It's hard to know she's at that age when she should be saying 'Da-Da.'"
But Hansen refuses to look at the glass as half-empty.
"It's kind of nice when (Kylyn) is yelling and (Kynnedi) still sleeps," she joked.
For now, the hearing aids remain attached to Kynnedi's ears, so she can get used to the feeling of cochlear implants. Hansen hopes her daughter will undergo the surgery before her first birthday. Though there are several risks associated with the six- to eight-hour procedure, Hansen said giving her daughter the chance to hear was something she couldn't pass up.
Asked how it will feel when her daughter hears her mother's voice for the first time, Hansen eyes filled up with tears. "I'll probably cry," she said.
