Cochlear Implant Case Study

Auguste Majkowski, a Canadian boy was born deaf and received a bilateral cochlear implant which failed to help him hear. A bilateral cochlear implant helps provide hearing in 360 degrees because your head acts as a barrier to sounds coming from different directions (Cochlear, n.d.). Thirty-six days after Auguste’s surgery, he lifted his head after audiologists Margaret Winter sent pulses of electric currents to his brain. Lifting his head showed that he heard a sound. This reaction was remarkable to the audiologists because Auguste was only 22 months old. A behavioral study is being conducted over three years with ten children under the age of five including Auguste. In order for children to qualify for the ABI device, they must have tried hearing aids and cochlear implant that prove to be ineffective. Some parts of the ABI device on his brainstem consist of a processor with a microphone and transmitter. This is similar to a cochlear implant but an auditory brainstem implant is for people who are considered completely deaf with no auditory nerves. The auditory nerves are in the inner ear but the ABI stimulates the neurons directly at the brainstem. This is extraordinary technology because all other devices stimulate some part …show more content…
There is a microphone that picks up the sounds that are around it and the electrical signal is transmitted to the internal part of the hearing implant. The implant consists of a receiver barely beneath the skin that is positioned within the brainstem.
Some disadvantages of auditory brainstem implants are that the surgery can be very complex and dangerous. These risks of undergoing neurosurgery can affect a person’s overall wellbeing. Positioning the auditory brainstem implant device on the part of the brainstem that delivers sound is a difficult task to obtain. Differentiation of sounds can be difficult for the client receiving the