The Health Board takes part in Deaf Awareness Week

This Deaf Awareness Week (3-9 May 2021), we’re supporting the UK Council on Deafness and highlighting how patients and residents of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan are ‘coming through it together’, thanks to the services provided by the Health Board.

Take 2 year old Grace Murphy. When she was born, her mother Rhian noticed straight away that something was different for her second-born child and had an inkling that Grace may be deaf. After being kept in hospital for two weeks as specialists thought little Grace may have meningitis, the hearing screening team conducted tests, and a further appointment at the Children’s Audiology Centre confirmed that Grace was profoundly deaf in her right ear and diagnosed severe to very severe in her left ear.

After receiving the diagnosis, mum Rhian explained how she felt it “very overwhelming” but quickly realised how much support was available, not only for Grace but for the family.

Over the two years, Grace and Rhian learnt to sign together at the same pace, which helped when Grace wanted to communicate with her family. Grace also took part in speech therapy sessions, which identified the sounds she wasn’t able to hear and process.

Although Grace wore hearing aids, her family felt that Grace wasn’t getting enough quality of sound to aid her with her speech development. The family were recommended cochlear implants for Grace but were advised to wait until Grace turned 2 to see how she was getting on. After seeing how hard young Grace was working to understand the talking world around her, her family decided that cochlear implants would be the best option for her.

Some patients and their families may have mixed feelings towards cochlear implants but mum Rhian told us how she felt before Grace’s operation, “It’s always a daunting thought to process how the implants will affect Grace with regards to how her peers will treat her because I suppose children can be inquisitive and sometimes cruel.

“But we feel the benefits that it will give Grace to be able to develop her speech more fully and be able to keep up with the talking world. Its giving her the best possible opportunities we hope to progress and hopefully catch up with her language development.”

Grace had her operation to have cochlear implants at the end of January this year. Although her family were nervous and apprehensive about putting Grace through the operation, Grace came round very well and bounced back like nothing had happened just a few hours after. Rhian added, “We had nearly four weeks waiting for her processors to be tuned in, so that was the hardest time without her having any sound at all for that time as her hearing aids didn’t appear to work anymore.”

Fast forward to 24th February – just a day before International Cochlear Implant day- it was Grace’s ‘turning on day’; a day where her cochlear implants would be turned on for the very first time.

“It was quite a shock to her but it was great to see that things were working as they should. The first few days after, she wasn’t too happy about wearing her processors and would only keep them on for around five minutes a day. Now she has them in for most of the day and is slowly coming round to realising she needs them.

“I can see how she is reacting to music and sounds around her already. Things can only get better from here on in”, added Rhian.

Razun Miah, Paediatric Cochlear Implant Lead for the Health Board, said: “It’s always so rewarding when a person’s cochlear implants are turned on for the very first time. You get to see their very first reactions to sound - something that has been absent for some of our patients since they were born, just like young Grace.

“We understand that some people may feel anxious about loss of hearing but at the Health Board, we have well-established Cochlear Implant and Bone Anchored Hearing Aid programmes, state-of-the-art equipment and access to a wide range of digital hearing aids.

“If you have any questions about your – or a loved one’s -hearing loss, our helpful and friendly Audiology team are available by contacting the Audiology helpline on 02921 843179 or emailing Audiology.Helpline.CAV@wales.nhs.uk”. 

You can find out more about the Health Board’s Audiology services by visiting the dedicated webpage.