This tiny hearing aid has transformed Victoria’s life

9:44am Wednesday 3rd September 2008

IT is hard to believe a device small enough to perch on the end of your finger could transform a young girl’s life forever, or so swiftly – but it has.

Victoria Jones is a far more confident and happy 10-year-old than she was three months ago, thanks to a bone anchored hearing aid (BAHA).

Victoria, a keen climber, dancer and gymnast, has felt her confidence come on, quite literally, leaps and bounds since her operation in June.

She no longer has to worry quite so much about missing what teachers tell her at school or asking her friends to repeat themselves because she did not hear them the first time.

Victoria, a pupil at Somers Park Primary School in Malvern, is now looking forward to singing in the school choir this Christmas and she has found a new enthusiasm for activities such as climbing, dancing and gymnastics where she competes on the vault, bar, beam and floor.

Victoria, her parents, friends and teachers have already noticed a big change for the better in her.

Victoria, of Grange Lane, Rushwick, Worcester, said: “In lessons I can hear straight away and understand straight away. When I didn’t have the BAHA on I had to ask again what people said. I don’t have to ask people to repeat things as much and I’m more comfortable in groups now. I feel more confident.”

When she’s on the climbing wall at Martley with seven-year-old sister Emily she can now hear her instructors from below, even when she is at the top of the wall.

She had the confidence to go on a climbing holiday in North Wales for a week, something she would never have imagined having the courage to do before.

Victoria, who is totally deaf in her left ear, no longer has to tilt and turn her good ear to be able to hear what people say.

The device tucks neatly behind her hair so that many people do not even know she is wearing it.

The only time she has to take off the sound processor is when she goes swimming or plays contact sports – she can even go on the beach with it provided she wears a cover for it.

Victoria had the device fitted following two operations at Birmingham Children’s Hospital – now she and her family hope to meet with others who are affected by hearing loss to promote the advantages of the device. A BAHA is a sound processor that clips on to a fixture known as an abutment attached to a small titanium screw implanted in the skull behind the ear.

This allows sound to be conducted through the bone rather than through the ear canal and middle ear, as it would normally. Through the abutment the BAHA is directly connected to the skull bone which is in turn connected to the cochlea or “inner ear”. This allows sound to be transmitted directly to the inner ear, allowing Victoria to hear through the damaged ear.

Her parents, David and Justine, did not realise Victoria had a problem with her hearing until she was six years old. They noticed she was hearing some things they said but not others so they took her to a dropin clinic in Worcester when they were told she had suffered hearing loss.

Her parents think the damage to her ear may have been caused by suspected meningitis when she was six months old.

Her mother Justine, aged 36, said: “It really was a shock. We never realised – it did not delay her speech and it came quite out of the blue when we found out. We have carried on and we don’t treat it as a problem.

None of her friends treat her any differently.”

She added: “It has transformed Victoria’s life. It has been a really big confidence-booster for her. She has the confidence to perform and she’s not struggling to keep up with what’s going on around her. The technology is amazing really. I want other people to have the same opportunities my daughter had.”

Her father David, aged 47, said: “It’s given her more attitude – people are noticing a perk in her personality. Before she would have to turn her head to hear – now she doesn’t. Now she looks straight ahead.”

She even had a chance to try the device 12 months before the operation, which happens for children in two stages, with a similar device fitted to an Alice band. In the end it was Victoria’s choice to have the operation, not her parents, and she decided to have it only after talks with the team at the audiology clinic.

MORE ABOUT BONE ANCHORED HEARING AIDS

Local audiologists will need to recommend whether or not a child is suitable for a BAHA.

The team will look at factors like hearing loss, speech, play and potential benefits for each individual child who is assessed.

Usually a BAHA is not fitted to children under the age of three because the skull bone may be too thin to firmly hold the fixture.

THE BAHA team also arrange home visits and to schools and nurseries.

The assessment itself is carried out at a children’s hospital or clinic.

The operation takes place in two stages for children and one for adults and is performed under general anaesthetic.

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