Srijani’s hearing journey with Naida CI Q90

Let’s start with some general knowledge for my readers: In one of its reports, the Asian Centre for Human Rights has concluded that India ranks fourth in global female infanticide.

While a majority of Indians still root for the birth of a male child in their family, and many abandon their daughters in their infancy, we have Mrs. And Mr. Saravanan who always wished for a daughter.

It took years for their prayers to get answered, and finally ‘Srijani’ arrived. “Her name is an amalgamation of Sri with Jani, which deciphers to the birth of Goddess Laxmi” says her mother.

I call her ‘my miracle baby’. Srijani has suffered a lot of hospitalization in her life. She was born a healthy child, but at the age of three, she was struck by Meningitis. She was in a state of comatose, for 10 days, when she hadn’t even turned four. I still get goosebumps when I think about it. The Neurologist said that she just had a 20% chance of survival, and my brave girl thankfully made it.

That life threatening fever snatched a lot from my baby, but she’s one courageous soul. Even after going through so much, she can brighten a dull day with her smile. She’s probably the strongest 9 year old you’ll ever find, and I really thank the Almighty for all the strength He has bestowed upon my girl.

While she was still in the hospital, some nurses brought to our notice that she doesn’t respond to them when they try to talk to her. We found it odd, because she was responding properly to everything that we said. They were persistent that we get her hearing checked but we brushed it off. We were not ready to accept another trouble in our toddler’s life, as she was already going through a lot.

But well, can we deny the truth for long? We finally had our tête-à-tête with the truth, when she had her back turned at me and I called her from behind. I kept calling out her name, but she didn’t turn to look at me.

All those days, my little-miss-smarty-pants had been lip-reading. Imagine! We rushed to my brother, who happens to be an audiologist. Somehow, her Meningitis had led to a calcium build-up in her cochlea.

Hence, her hearing impairment is an aftermath of the brain fever.

We decided to get a bilateral surgery in one go, for a better quality hearing. Many people opt for a unilateral implant at first, but I’d recommend bilateral because it gives your child a closest-to-natural hearing. That way, developing the speech becomes way more easy for the child. In the course of one year, she learnt speaking English in school and we taught her Kannada and Tamil simultaneously, at home. Now, she’s learning Hindi and Arabic. I think it wouldn’t have been half as convenient without a bilateral implant.

The first processor we got for her was called Harmony, by Advanced Bionics. Srijani used it for four years and it had tremendous results. It was a great sound processor in itself, and we never faced any problems with it. Which is why, with all our faith invested in AB, we have only recently upgraded Srijani’s processor to Naida CI-Q90.

It is obviously much more advanced than her previous processor, and takes the bar of superior hearing higher by a notch. Thanks to the WindBlock technology which is designed to attenuate wind noise to improve the listening experience in windy conditions, she doesn’t complain of the discomfort caused by the wind anymore.

It can be paired with so many compatible gadgets, designed to make it usable in every situation. Upon Srijani’s insistance, we’ve got her an AquaCase and a ComPilot as well. While the AquaCase is a protective casing designed to allow the wearer to swim without damaging the implant, the ComPilot allows Sri to stream her device with the television and listen to it freely, at her own desired volume, without bothering anyone else. Even if we completely mute the set, she can still listen to it as loudly as she wants to.

And no, that’s not it. There’s a plethora of features we’re yet to explore.