5-Year-Old Wants Cochlear Implant for Christmas

Status
Not open for further replies.
shel90 said:
Anyways...where does a 5 year old get the idea that becoming hearing is better than being deaf? There is no way a 5 year old can come up with that conclusion him/herself.
Click to expand...

Sure they can....You don't give 5 yos enough credit.
 
jillio said:
People who want 2 HAs pay for them. They don't get them with public medical funds.

And, not everyone wants 2. I know plenty of people that use just one. And I know plent of people who have just one breast or just one testicle. Medicaid funds don't pay for breast or testicular reconstruction. It is not medically necessary. Well, here is some news: neither is a CI.
Click to expand...

Plenty huh? :lol:
 
webexplorer said:
Everybody want to have two hearing aids or two CIs. It is so stupid just to have one. How about just one breast or one testicle? Two is better to keep in the balance. ;)
Click to expand...
FYI, some people do have a CI in one ear and an HA in the other.
 
My daughter asked for her first CI at age 5 and her second at 7. She asked why she couldn't hear some things with her hearing aid, we explained that her hearing had gone down, and that her hearing aid didn't work that well anymore. We explained that there was a surgery that could help her hear more, and she said she wanted to do it.

The second one, she was becoming frustrated when we were testing just the hearing aid. She said that she couldn't hear with it. She asked if she could get another CI, so she could hear in both ears.
Click to expand...
On the other hand jillo and all, faire joure's daughter had a progressive loss. I think a kid with a progressive loss is old enough (at around five) to help decide whether or not they want a CI. In fact, I do think that if a kid is being raised in a child centered household, (with a full toolbox approach)that they are old enough to help decide if they want them.
eople who want 2 HAs pay for them. They don't get them with public medical funds.

And, not everyone wants 2. I know plenty of people that use just one. And I know plent of people who have just one breast or just one testicle. Medicaid funds don't pay for breast or testicular reconstruction. It is not medically necessary. Well, here is some news: neither is a CI.
I agree with this. Its not fair to cover two implants when they won't even cover a single hearing aids. Until then....one is enough to get by. Two is a luxury.
Click to expand...
AMEN!!!!
There have been TONS of people who are perfectly happy with just one or even a bimodal approach! A second one is NOT a gotta have. It's a good idea to have it if the person's speech perception is relatively low....Like say if a person's speech perception was under 70%, they could get it with no hassle. But it does seem like a lot of our healthcare costs are driven by entitled people demanding best of the best.....like bilateral CIs, when a CI and a hearing aid would do.
 
Everyone is jumping on one fact of the story and making arguments based on whether a five year old "wants" the CI or not, but, here's the deal. That's not the real issue. The real issue is whether FL Medicaid will pay for the second implant. I would guess that they have a 50-50 shot with that.

As for the "tone" of the story, has it occurred to everyone that they write these stories because they are so stinking emotional?

For the record, it's IFFY whether this five year old truly wants a second CI. Does this five year old understand the need for a second surgery? The fact that there will be some pain involved and all that? Truth be told, maybe, but would YOU put your kid through surgery just because he says he wants to hear?

A lot of that will depend on how well this five year old is able to comprehend everything that is involved. Also, does this child truly NEED a second CI? There's a lot to question here... A lot to question.
 
jazzy said:
I don't think taxpayers should pay him for having another one. One is enough.
Click to expand...

Yup, I don't think that Medicaid should cover CI because they are just elective surgery, IMO.
 
Oceanbreeze said:
Everyone is jumping on one fact of the story and making arguments based on whether a five year old "wants" the CI or not, but, here's the deal. That's not the real issue. The real issue is whether FL Medicaid will pay for the second implant. I would guess that they have a 50-50 shot with that.

As for the "tone" of the story, has it occurred to everyone that they write these stories because they are so stinking emotional?

For the record, it's IFFY whether this five year old truly wants a second CI. Does this five year old understand the need for a second surgery? The fact that there will be some pain involved and all that? Truth be told, maybe, but would YOU put your kid through surgery just because he says he wants to hear?

A lot of that will depend on how well this five year old is able to comprehend everything that is involved. Also, does this child truly NEED a second CI? There's a lot to question here... A lot to question.
Click to expand...


:gpost:....couldn't have said it better, Ocean!...NO child is alike. And I feel this kid understands a lot more than some adults do. He wants to hear more, and if it were up to me, and it was my child, I'd do everything I could to make his wish come true.
 
Oceanbreeze said:
As for the "tone" of the story, has it occurred to everyone that they write these stories because they are so stinking emotional?

.
Click to expand...

that's what I meant by putting the child in the spotlight. you worded it better.

I couldn't put it in words.
 
rockin'robin said:
:gpost:....couldn't have said it better, Ocean!...NO child is alike. And I feel this kid understands a lot more than some adults do. He wants to hear more, and if it were up to me, and it was my child, I'd do everything I could to make his wish come true.
Click to expand...

We're talking about a five year old who already had a CI implanted, and he wanted to "hear" more. One was apparently not enough, so he wanted another CI. Suppose you give him his wish, and implant another. Yayyy. But he wants to "hear" even more. What then? You cannot make it happen, and his residual hearing is GONE. From my personal observations, five year old dreams are ephemeral, but the hearing loss is permanent. *shrug*
 
It's almost Christmas...and things will be put into the spotlight that are heart-wrenching.....it's always been that way. Just to pull on our heart-strings.
 
Yeah, I don't think a 5 yr old knows the implications of saying he wants to hear more....how could he/she?
 
Buffalo said:
Well said! And a 5 year old doesn't have a concept of death and that death is permanent... that's why I don't want to see CI in kids.
Click to expand...

No, they don't. And they won't have understanding of that concept for several years. It is one of the factors that contributes to the suicide rate in teens. They simply are not developmentally capable of understanding the permanence of death. Also, developmentally, they are still very impulsive, as is a 5 year old.
 
Beowulf said:
Kind of off-topic, but Emily Dickenson said it best in her poem:

Surgeons must be very careful
When they take the Knife!
Underneath their fine incisions
Stirs the Culprit--Life!
Click to expand...

I like that.
 
Beowulf said:
We're talking about a five year old who already had a CI implanted, and he wanted to "hear" more. One was apparently not enough, so he wanted another CI. Suppose you give him his wish, and implant another. Yayyy. But he wants to "hear" even more. What then? You cannot make it happen, and his residual hearing is GONE. From my personal observations, five year old dreams are ephemeral, but the hearing loss is permanent. *shrug*
Click to expand...

Very well said.
 
rockin'robin said:
:gpost:....couldn't have said it better, Ocean!...NO child is alike. And I feel this kid understands a lot more than some adults do. He wants to hear more, and if it were up to me, and it was my child, I'd do everything I could to make his wish come true.
Click to expand...

If he is capable of understanding more than adults, I want to know where he is. He is a psychological and neurological anomaly.
 
Bottesini said:
:rofl: Well wouldn't you have to take into consideration each person's definition of "plenty?"
Click to expand...

Let's see...personally know of about 35 people with one CI, 3 people with 1 breast, and 1 person with one testicle. Search the medical archives, and hundreds more can be found.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top