20 years of Cochlear implantation in Phl marked

Do you know that there are more than 600 “hearing deaf” in the country today?

Mostly young children, these deaf individuals were given the chance to hear life through cochlear implantation courtesy of Med-El Philippines, which brought the world’s first micro-electronic multi-channel cochlear implant (CI) in the country in 1997.

Available record shows that one deaf baby is born every three hours in the country according to Dr. Charlotte Chiong, director of the Newborn Hearing Screening Reference Center (NHSRC) based at the UP Manila National Institutes of Health (UPM-NIH).

“We did our research with a good data to back it up, there’s 1.74 per a thousand babies – eight profound deaf babies – born every day in the Philippines. That’s a staggering number! Yes, based on a study we’ve conducted that’s one deaf baby born every three hours,” said Chiong who is also UP Manila’s vice chancellor for planning and development.

Inspired by the works of the late German national Georg Mueller, touted as Father of Cochlear Implantation in the Philippines, the idea of organizing a foundation to support cochlear implant patients with efficient and personalized partnership was visualized.

A foundation that will fight for the rights and needs of the hearing impaired, whose only hope to hear and speak is through cochlear implantation will carry on Georg’s legacy – the HearLife Foundation Inc. (HLFI) – was recently organized.

Georg was designated by Drs. Ingeborg and Erwin Hochmair, inventors/proprietors of Med-El, Innsbruck, Austria to establish and Head the Med-El Asia Pacific Regional Headquarters located in Alabang, Muntinlupa, in the year 1997.

With his Filipina wife Maribel as his “personal associate,” the couple worked together to provide opportunities for children with deafness to get back their hearing to enjoy the sounds around them and communicate with everyone just like anybody else.