Project Ghanti’ is a unique initiative which aims to help children of economically impoverished families in accessing treatment
Noida, Sept 12, 2015: For Rajan Kumar Singh, a farmer by profession who earns a meager Rs 5,000 a month, having a deaf child was a major challenge. With the high cost of implant surgery beyond his means, he had all but given up hope of a normal life for his son Pragyan. However, a visit to SpHear Speech & Hearing Clinic changed everything.
With a cochlear implant surgery performed at a highly subsidized cost to treat the hearing impairment, 4-year-old Pragyan will now be able to hear and speak. There is no limit to his parents’ happiness.
India’s premier dedicated facility to provide hearing and speech solutions, SpHear Clinic has joined hands with ‘I Can Hear Foundation’ to conduct hearing screening for children and offer them solutions such as cochlear implants, hearing aids and other necessary devices at highly subsidized rates.
Supported by THF (The Hans Foundation) and titled ‘Project Ghanti’, this project hopes to enable as many children as possible hear the melodious sound of the school bell.
Similar is the case of Vansh Jain, another 4-year-old child of an employee of a stationary who was taken under the wing of SpHear Clinic for a cochlear implant surgery. The surgery was performed by Dr Ameet Kishore, Senior Consultant Surgeon, ENT & Cochlear Implant.
In an interaction with the media today, the parents of these two children narrated their stories and expressed hope of a better future for their children.
“The state of awareness is so low in places like Noida that often children with hearing or speech disability are not even taken to a doctor for a medical examination for several years. By the time many get medical help, they have lost crucial years of cognitive development. We advice parents to get their children’s hearing ability assessed immediately after birth. In other cases, they should immediately see a doctor if they observe any unusualness in their child’s response to sounds. SpHear Speech and Hearing clinic has undertaken a mission to offer professional audiological care to patients suffering from speech and hearing problems. The organization excels in conducting hearing screening tests for new born kids. High quality specialized tests are a specialty of SpHear,” says Ms. Neevita Narayan, Audiologist & Founder, SpHear (Speech & Hearing) Clinic.
Almost 90% of the cost of treatment of the two children was borne by the organizers, funded by THF through SpHear Clinic.
SpHear Clinic also conducted a two-day camp in Noida during which experts conducted hearing testing and provided free of cost consultation to patients.
“Today, with the availability of revolutionary technology it is possible to offer children a hearing solution tailored to their needs. Hearings aids, cochlear implants and auditory brain stem implants can enable children lead normal lives. Even some cases of complete absence of hearing can be successfully treated today by auditory brain stem implant technology. In the case of these two children, both were using hearing aids but they were not benefitting them. Now, after the surgery with a little rehabilitation and speech therapy, Pragyan and Vansh will be able to hear and speak,” says Dr Ameet Kishore, Senior Consultant Surgeon, ENT & Cochlear Implant at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi & Consultant Surgeon at SpHear Speech and Hearing Clinic.
Statistics suggest that up to 8 per 1000 children in India are born with hearing impairment ranging from mild to profound. However, almost half of them do not get medical help either due to lack of awareness about possible solutions or financial vulnerability.
The clinic has an experience of more than 600 cochlear implants. They have successfully handled most complicated cases with implantable devices to restore hearing! They specialize in Habilitation of deaf children & has most experienced clinicians & super specialized cochlear implant surgeon. They are only clinic in India who has done Cochlear’s ABI implant & hybrid implant !!
About SpHear Speech & Hearing Clinic
At the SpHear Speech & Hearing Clinic we understand that addressing a patient’s unique listening needs is the key to helping him/her. SpHear Clinic offers personalized hearing, speech and communication services, in addition to the latest hearing device technology. The organization is dedicated to helping all people, regardless of their age, to improve communication and vocational independence for life.
SpHear Speech & Hearing Clinic is a state-of-the-art clinic established by Neevita Narayan, a Speech & Hearing graduate from AIIMS.