Durban — Two-year-old Uminathi Mafisa, of Pinetown, who suffered from hearing loss since birth, underwent a successful cochlear implant at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital in Durban on Thursday.
Cochlear implants are electronic devices that are especially useful when a conventional hearing aid has little or no benefit, or cannot be used.
Uminathi’s parents, Kwenzekile and Victor Mafisa could not contain their excitement in the hospital on Thursday. Kwenzekile said they first noticed the problem in their daughter when she was 12 months old.
However, Uminathi’s bubbly personality kept them going and they sought medical assistance.
Uminathi and 43-year-old Xolani Sikhosana were the first two patients to have the cochlear implants in the province’s public health sector through the KwaZulu-Natal Auditory Implant Programme (KZN-AIP) that was launched in 2021. The programme is a collaboration of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology (ear, nose and throat surgery) and the Discipline of Audiology.
The multidisciplinary team draws on expertise from staff in the Department of Health and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and uniquely includes deaf community advocates, to make person-centred ear and hearing care accessible to all.
Kwenzekile said her daughter had been modelling for Mr Price and Ackermans. When they noticed that she had a problem they made a decision to get her hearing back. Kwenzekile said that what the doctors did was amazing because they did not know which school to take Uminathi to. Kwenzekile said words could not express how grateful she was to the medical team.
“We never thought we would come to this day where she can hear. God has been faithful,” she said.
Dr Zandile Shezi, a UKZN-based audiologist, specialist and lecturer, said it was a challenge not being able to screen the children from birth.
“Kids come to us after two years so that makes it hard for us to assist them the way we would like. A child who is born with a hearing loss cannot be able to talk, so we need to do the cochlear implant to be able to hear sound because that is how they learn to talk,” she said.
Shezi said children came to them when they were 3 years old or older, and it was difficult to help them as they had passed the stage of learning to talk.
Sikhosana, who lost his hearing after developing an undisclosed ailment more than a year ago, said he was excited to be able to hear again. When he lost his hearing, the only way to communicate with him was through writing.
Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane said that other provinces had started with the programme and KZN had been the only one left behind.
“The private sector has been doing it, but now the government will begin to provide the service. People who cannot afford this kind of procedure are now able to do so,” said Simelane.
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