Chief Minister’s initiative helps girl get Cochlear implant

This is for the first time when the implant which costs Rs 10 lakh was installed free of cost of a girl coming from economically challenged background. The initiative was taken by the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. 

The girl’s mother Toton Ghosh Barick, a resident of Bansulia under Mahisadal police station in East Midnapore met Banerjee at her residence a few days after the election results. 

Toton, deserted by her husband requested Banerjee to save the life of her daughter, who was born deaf. She said because of economic hardship it was not possible for her to undertake her treatment.

The CM who is looking after the health portfolio, sent Swapnika to SSKM hospital where Dr Arunava Sengupta, head of the department of ENT examined her and found that Cochlear implant was necessary to combat the problem. 

Dr Sengupta on Wednesday installed the implant successfully. The seven-year-old got a new lease of life. When contacted Toton said: “It was didi who has given a new lease of life to my daughter. I never thought that Swapnika would ever hear anything. Didi is God to us.”

Cochlear Implant is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely heard of hearing in both ears.

Cochlear Implant bypasses the normal hearing process. They have a microphone and some electronic parts that reside outside the skin generally behind the ear which transmits a signal to an array of electrodes placed in the Cochlear which stimulate the Cochlear nerves.