Deaf toddler given latest implant
Two-year-old Katie Dening was pronounced deaf by her grandmother at four days old when she failed to respond to the sound of the family piano. Hospital tests confirmed that Katie had 'significant hearing loss' in both ears and her musical family feared she would never be able to enjoy the sounds which they all love so much.
Fortunately for Katie, she was eligible for a cochlear implant and was fitted with the latest device, called a Nucleus Freedom, at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge in July 2005.
Katie was one of the youngest children in the UK to be given a cochlear implant - she was just 15 months old when the implant was fitted - and she has progressed rapidly. A month after the switch on session she responded to voices and six months later she can recognise her name, say 'Mum', and hear TV and music at normal volumes.
The implant hasn't cured Katie's deafness, but the doctors are confident that she will have normal speech and language by the age of five, which would allow her to attend mainstream school.
