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martyb writes:

The Profoundly Deaf Girl Who Found Her Voice after Brain Surgery:

Seven-year-old Leia Armitage lived in total silence for the first two years of her life, but thanks to pioneering brain surgery and years of therapy she has found her voice and can finally tell her parents she loves them.

"We were told you could put a bomb behind her and she wouldn't hear it at all if it went off," said Leia's father, Bob, as he recalled finding out their baby daughter had a rare form of profound deafness.

Leia, from Dagenham in east London, had no inner ear or hearing nerve, meaning that even standard hearing aids or cochlear implants wouldn't help her.

As a result, she was never expected to speak - but despite the risks, her parents fought for her to be one of the first children in the UK to be given an auditory brainstem implant, requiring complex brain surgery when she was two years old.

[...] He and his wife Alison hoped that after the surgery at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust she would be able to hear things like cars beeping their horns as she crossed the road - to make her safer in the world.

However, in the five years since the surgery, her progress has been much greater than they ever expected.

[...] Now, after lots of regular speech and language therapy, she can put full sentences together, attempt to sing along to music and hear voices on the phone.

[...] The cutting-edge surgery involves inserting a device directly into the brain to stimulate the hearing pathways in children born with no cochlea or auditory nerves.

A microphone and sound processor unit worn on the side of the head then transmits sound to the implant.

This electrical stimulation can provide auditory sensations, but it cannot promise to restore normal hearing.

[...] "The outcomes are variable. Some will do better than others," he said.

"They have to adapt to it and younger children do better so we like to insert the implant early if possible."

I had heard of reports doing something similar for completely blind people with brain implants and a custom (low-resolution) video cam. It only makes sense that the technology would be extended to another one of the five senses. Still, I find it amazing what technology can accomplish. Go science!

Original Submission