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Thursday, Jan 13, 2005

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National

The sound of music

By Ramya Kannan

CHENNAI, JAN. 12. Young Jayalakshmi has a chip in her head.

At the stalk of her brain, the brain stem, it sits, held in place by a small wing-like structure. The 22 electrodes in the chip, which is only half the size of the nail on a little finger, sit awaiting electrical impulses activated by sound. Once the sound waves are picked up by the external device, they are transmitted electrically to the chip, allowing Jayalakshmi to hear. The sounds are still machine-like, metallic, but after two years of silence, she is thrilled to be hearing anything at all.

The Auditory Brainstell Implant (ABI) procedure was performed in Chennai, the first such in South Asia and South East Asia, at the Madras ENT Research Foundation (MERF) with the assistance of the German expert Peter Sollmann, the neurosurgeons M.C. Vasudevan, Ravi Ramamurthi and K. Sridhar, from the Achanta Lakshmipathi Neurosurgical Centre, Voluntary Health Services (VHS) Hospital, Chennai. So far, only about 300 such procedures have been done worldwide.

A bright student aspiring to be a doctor, Jayalakshmi had lived a rather normal life, with normal hearing. On October 12, 2002, suddenly she could hear no more. After being treated for various conditions, including ear infections, she was directed to the VHS, where doctors diagnosed a benign tumour that had settled on her auditory nerves, incapacitating them. The tumour had to be removed. But could hearing be restored?

That is where Dr. Kameswaran came in. An ABI procedure could do the trick, but it was complex. And the cost of the device alone was Rs. 9 lakhs. The decision was made quickly: the surgeons would charge nothing; the MERF Charitable Trust would sponsor the equipment; a sophisticated nerve monitor would be sponsored by the Nandakumars of Malaysia.

The surgical procedure was completed on December 26. Fifteen days later, doctors spent an entire day to switch on the hearing device. Exhausted when they finally finished at 2.30 a.m., all they wanted to do was to crawl into bed.

But for Jayalakshmi, the day had just begun, all over again. There was a chip in her head and the sound of music all about her. And all was well with the world again.

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