Magic ear helps schoolboy hear again
A six-year-old who has bravely battled a host of serious health complications is going from strength-to-strength thanks to a special ‘magic ear’.
After being born prematurely at 25 weeks weighing just one pound 10 ounces, Armaan Mahay has had to go through a series of operations to help his heart and liver.
The youngster, from Walsall, also suffered a severe bleed on his brain and needed laser eye surgery.
At four-months-old his family was told the devastating news that he was profoundly deaf – with no hearing at all.
However, after being transferred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital’s specialist audiology team a few months later they were given hope after it was discovered Armaan did have some hearing.
After initially using hearing aids, Armaan was offered cochlear implants – electronic devices fitted through surgery that make sounds louder by doing the work of the damaged parts of the inner ear to provide sound signals to the brain.
The ‘magic ears’ replicate the sense of hearing by electronically stimulating the cochlea to bypass the non-functioning hair cells of the inner ear.
It has two parts; one which is implanted inside the ear during an operation and an outer part called a sound processor.
Mum Sharmila Samrai, said: "We are incredibly proud of how much Armaan has achieved. To be told at birth that he wouldn't walk or talk deeply traumatised us and we would watch him at every milestone with baited breath hoping and praying that he would be ok.
"He has proved everyone wrong and come such a long way. He is a happy, confident and healthy little boy. He has a fabulous relationship with everyone he meets. The team at Birmingham Children's Hospital have been fantastic, as well as his current teaching staff at school."
