‘Miracle Child’: Assisted by SpHear Speech & Hearing Clinic, 4-Year-Old Overcomes Multiple Disability to Enter the Mainstream

Jyontika’s impressive recovery highlights how a good rehabilitation process can make a huge difference in the life of a physically challenged person

New Delhi, November 20, 2015: When she was born four years back, Jyontika’s parents had little hope of their child ever leading a normal life. However, the little girl born with Rubella syndrome defied all expectations by successfully overcoming multiple disabilities and surgical interventions. Jyontika today is not only studying with normal children but is doing remarkable well at school.

In this battle for normalcy, little Jyontika was supported thoroughly by the rehabilitation experts of SpHear Speech & Hearing Clinics, who lovingly term her a ‘miracle child’.

Congenital Rubella Syndrome is a condition that occurs in children at birth when the pregnant mother is infected with rubella virus affecting the development of the fetus. The children born with this condition may suffer multiple disabilities and health complications including cloudy corneas affecting the vision, deafness, developmental delay, low birth weight, among others.

Jyontika too was born with several such congenital defects including hearing impairment, vision problems, a heart defect with low birth weight and developmental problems. The girl could not see clearly due to clouding of her cornea and was born deaf, resulting in an inability to speak as well. Not only did all this cause major disability to her, but the absence of basic senses of vision, hearing and speech also inhibited her cognitive development.

Over the course of the first three years in her life, the little girl underwent a series of surgical interventions to correct her birth defects. A major heart surgery to correct a congenital defect in her heart was followed by a cataract surgery to clear her vision.

Finally, she was operated upon to insert cochlear implants into her ear to enable her to hear.

“Speech training is a normal part of our rehabilitation exercise, and this is performed extensively for every child or adult who undergoes cochlear implant. However, the case of Jyontika was nothing like we had come across earlier. Hearing impairment was not the only one disability she was battling against. She also had developmental delay and cognitive function loss because of multiple disabilities. Apart from that multiple surgeries had put a lot of stress on the health of the little girl. Yet, her recovery is astounding even for good rehabilitation standards,” says Ms Neevita Narayan, leading audiologist and founder of Sphear Speech & Hearing Clinic.

Jyontika’s hearing impairment, along with other disorders were discovered at birth. The girl was picked up at birthby experts of SpHear Speech & hearing Clinic who took her under her wing, oversaw a cochlear implant surgery on her and conducted a long rehabilitation process.

“A cochlear implant is an electronic medical device that works to perform the function of the damaged inner ear (cochlea) to provide sound signals to the brain. Implanting a cochlear device, however, is not the end of the story for children who are hearing impaired. The surgery is required to be followed by a major rehabilitation and speech training program to enable children make sense of the sounds they hear and use them to learn to speak. We performed a cochlear implant procedure on Jyontika and this was followed by a long rehabilitation process involving audiologic and speech therapy,” says Dr Ameet Kishore, Senior Consultant Surgeon, ENT at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi & Consultant Surgeon at SpHear Speech and Hearing Clinic.

After over three years of supervision and assistance, the girl achieved complete ability to hear and speak and cognitive development at par with the children of her age. This, despite the fact that she started off with major disadvantage and could not have as normal an early childhood as other children.

Now, Jyontika has been admitted to a school for normal children and is performing exceptionally well at studies. Her case marks a rare and highly successful story of rehabilitation in children born with congenital hearing and vision defects.

“We feel very fortunate that we came in touch at an early stage with the right kind of experts who took our child under their wing and ensured that she not only picked up hearing and speaking but also developed cognitive ability equal to children of her age. Four years back it would have been difficult for us to imagine that our child will start her schooling at a normal school, but we are overjoyed by her progress. People do not believe when we tell them that this was a girl born with such difficult conditions and was deaf at birth,” says a Mr. Joydeep dutta (Jyontika’s father)

Importance of Neonatal Hearing Screening

This case also highlights the importance of early detection of hearing loss in a child and how it is crucial that such babies are picked up at birth and intervention is made as early as possible. If not for the detection at birth and early medical intervention involving cochlear implant and the ensuing rehabilitation, Jyontika might not have progressed so well.

Remember the 1-3-6 month rule!! Hearing screening at one month, diagnosis by 3 months & rehabilitation by 6 months. ONLY if picked up so early in life, hearing impaired children can assimilate well into society. Deafness being a hidden disability, it is often missed by Indian parents till the time the child is unable to speak. By this time, the child misses crucial months of cognitive development.

It is advisable for all parents to get their children screened for hearing at birth.

Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)