Youngest child in Illinois — and one of the first — to receive bilateral cochlear implant
December 14, 2006 - Six-month-old Bennett Haas, Chicago, heard for the fist time when Children's Memorial Hospital's audiologist Beth White activated his cochlear implants. Bennett is one of the youngest patients in the country and the youngest child in Illinois to receive bilateral cochlear implants, a surgically implanted device that provides hearing to the deaf.
Bilateral cochlear implantation provides deaf children like Bennett with the “two ear advantage” that normal hearing listeners have from birth. Hearing from both ears provides greater ease of listening situations in which background noise is present and better enables the listener to determine from where a sound is originating.
On November 1, 2006, Nancy M. Young, MD, head of Otology and Neurotology and founder of Children's Memorial's cochlear implant program, performed the surgery. Young has implanted over 550 children since 1991. Her implant program is the largest in Illinois and one of the largest children's cochlear implant programs in the United States.
“When FDA approval of the first cochlear implant system occurred over 20 years ago, surgeons implanted only one ear with this new and relatively unproven technology,” says Young. “Since then, cochlear implant technology has revolutionized treatment of childhood deafness. The benefit now possible from current technology has resulted in more deaf children receiving an implant in both ears.”
Bennett's hearing loss is the result of a genetic problem that is one of the more common causes of childhood deafness. Bennett's older brother, Declan, also recently was implanted by Dr Young at Children's Memorial.
One of the first sounds Bennett heard at the activation of his cochlear implant was the voice of his mother and father, Hadley and Scott Haas, saying his name. “Our family feels so fortunate to live near an amazing hospital such as Children's Memorial and to have been able to have this procedure done by Dr. Young,” said Hadley Haas. “Everyone at the hospital has been so supportive and accessible to us during the entire experience.”
Bennett continues to respond to sounds and now just has to learn that the sounds have meaning. He's already started to receive hearing therapy at Children's Memorial.
Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, is recognized as one of the top pediatric hospitals in the country and is rated number one in Illinois in rankings published in U.S. News & World Report. As the pediatric educational facility for Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, our physicians saw more than 100,000 patients last year.
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