By FRANCESCA MOLD
Malcolm Skelton's eyes lit up with surprise when he heard his mother call his name for the first time in eight months.
The Otara infant has lived in a world without sound since his hearing was destroyed by the potentially deadly pneumococcal meningitis disease last October.
Yesterday, audiologists restored Malcolm's hearing by switching on a tiny computer linked to a device implanted in his skull and inner ear by doctors at Auckland's Starship hospital last month.
Malcolm, who will celebrate his first birthday next week, is the youngest New Zealander to receive a cochlear implant.
A microphone behind his ear sends sounds to a micro-computer carried in a tiny backpack. The processor identifies sounds and sends them to a receiver implanted under the scalp.
The receiver activates electrodes which stimulate hearing nerve fibres in the cochlea - the inner ear - sending a message to the brain.
Malcolm's mother, Lorris Skelton, yesterday watched in delight as her son celebrated his newly restored hearing by gleefully shaking tambourines and banging drums.
"It's going to be the biggest birthday present - that he can hear," she said tearfully. "I really have no words to explain how I'm feeling. I just can't say, 'Thank you,' enough to everyone."
Although Malcolm can hear, it will take months of work with therapists and his parents before he can associate sounds with objects and the world around him and understand what they represent.
Therapist Liz Fairgray, who will teach Malcolm listening and speaking skills for the next five years, said it would be a careful, slow process but Malcolm's speech would almost certainly eventually develop normally.
Ms Fairgray said a major benefit of the cochlear implant device was that children wearing it could attend kindergarten and mainstream schools.
Senior audiologist Leslie Searchfield said that when Malcolm became a teenager, his backpack unit would probably be replaced with a smaller version which would fit behind his ear like a hearing aid.
The units cost about $12,000 each. Treatment for children is fully paid for by the Government but adults may have to have some of the process done privately.
Ms Searchfield said the total cost of rehabilitation was about $40,000. But measured against the cost of lifetime support provided to people with hearing disabilities, the device was extremely cost-effective.
Malcolm was not the only child to have his hearing restored at the National Audiology Centre in Auckland this week.
Christchurch girl Dasha Leonie-Lee Taylor, aged 3, was the 100th child to have a cochlear implant. Her device was switched on by audiologists on Tuesday.
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