Cochlear Implants: Health Story

Aired on Superstation WGN
Saturday, May 28 and September 17, 2005

Show 214

"I was born deaf," says Mike Going, a 34 year old who depended on lip reading and hearing aids until he had a cochlear implant. Nearly 70,000 people have cochlear implants in the United States. "About three or four months after I had the implant, I realized I could hear on a cell phone. It was music to my ears," says Mike. In a cochlear implant a receiver or stimulator in implanted behind the ear. Electrodes are threaded into the cochlear. An external processor is wired to a microphone which is held to the implant inside the head by a magnet. "The implant sends sounds to the cochlear nerves by electrodes. It works like a champ," says Dr. J. Gail Neely of Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis. "To hear my young daughter crying is amazing, but the best thing is to hear her say Daddy," says Mike.