Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!snorkelwacker!spdcc!merk!alliant!linus!think!eplunix!raoul
From: raoul@eplunix.UUCP (Nico Garcia)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Deaf Comm and Cochlear Implants
Keywords: deaf implant cochlear
Message-ID: <929@eplunix.UUCP>
Date: 9 Aug 90 16:35:17 GMT
References: <[568]comp.misc@oldcolo.UUCP> <1990Aug4.140142.7253@clmqt.marquette.Mi.US>
Organization: Eaton-Peabody Lab, Boston, MA
Lines: 32

In article <1990Aug4.140142.7253@clmqt.marquette.Mi.US>, strike@clmqt.marquette.Mi.US (Tim Bowser) writes:
> jep@oldcolo.UUCP (Josep Pfauntsch) writes:
> 
>    Being asymmetrically deaf for the past 6 years has given me some 
> small insyghts into the frustrations that deaf (or hearing-impaired) go 
> through.  I am not eligible for the cochlear implant, however many 
> channels it has, because I have not been deaf since birth.


Tim, in this lab, at the Mass. Eye and Ear Infirmary's Cochlear Implant
Research Lab, we do these implants. I don't *believe* that you're correct:
discussions in our lab have examined the *possibility* of implanting people
who *were* deaf before learning language: all of our suggests (to the best
of my knowledge) could speak *before* being deaf.  I would suggest you
contact your local ENT specialist and/or audiologist for the latest
information. If you would like more data, or are reasonably close to
Massachusetts, I would suggest you contact us for more information on their
availability, effectiveness, and appropriateness for different subjects. Or
we could, I think, put you in touch with people who've received them and can
describe them personally.

It's tough talking over the net on a subject I work with professionally
(as an engineer in the lab, not as a clinician!). Any advice I could offer
beyond what's above might make me liable, so I won't. Get in touch with
the professionals on this one: there is lots of research going on in
the field, at various places, finding out all sorts of interesting things.


-- 
			Nico Garcia
			Designs by Geniuses for use by Idiots
			eplunix!cirl!raoul@eddie.mit.edu