Deaf Toddler Hears for the First Time Thanks to Cochlear Implant

Though 95 million work days are lost by victims of slips and falls every year, the most common workplace injurydoesn’t cause bruises or broken bones.

Hearing loss affects 22 million workers every year, and costs $242 million in workers compensation.

Some people who have experienced hearing loss have done nothing hazardous to cause the condition. Sometimes, you’re just born deaf.

Danni Steedman, a two-and-a-half-year-old girl from Auckland, New Zealand, spent the first four months of her short life in a hospital. Danni was born four month premature, and ended up suffering from a chronic lung disease, various kidney problems, and auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder. When she was three months old, her parents were told that she would not live long.

Against the odds, Danni made it to her second birthday, and is mostly healthy. However, the young girl is severely deaf in one ear, and moderately to severely deaf in the other. Despite being fitted for hearing aids last year, she rarely spoke or responded to sounds.

Through The Hearing House, a local charity, she was able to receive a cochlear implant, which has helped her learn to hear and speak.

Kris and Karen Steedman, Danni’s parents, said that she rarely reacted to any communication, but is now able to tell which direction sounds are coming from. Kris said that watching his daughter as her implant was turned on for the first time brought tears to his eyes.

Before she begins primary school, she must undergo auditory and verbal therapy. These services are being provided at The Hearing House as well.

The Hearing House has given hundreds of hearing-impaired children the ability to hear with cochlear implants.

Danni has become more confident in herself since receiving the implant, and she is likely to improve more with time. If this implant continues to help her, she will likely be fitted for a second one in her other ear.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Health funds cochlear implants for both adults and children according to circumstance, restoring — or in some cases, creating — the ability for many people to hear.