Cochlear decison

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That doesn't surprise me at all. Insurance companies are more willing to cover CI surgery because they think that they will only ever have to pay out on that one claim, and all claims that have to do with hearing loss will be gone. They don't cover hearing aids because they will have to be responsible for paying to have them replaced every so often.

That is the old story from the manufacturerers and the doctors that CI is more cost efficient.:roll: It is all about profit.


Yes. You're right as always jillo. But in addition I think they covered them b/c back then only a very small percentage of deaf people qualified for them. So they thought....expensive but only for a small percentage of people....= low risk. Nowadays with the increasing popularity of implants, that isn't true....I am predicting that insurance companies are going to start cracking down on implant coverage....like only offering bare bones coverage, or restricting who can/can't get one.....and it's going to be very strict.
 
True. And a doctor will never tell a patient a failure rate. Just try asking.
 
True. And a doctor will never tell a patient a failure rate. Just try asking.

Of course its (implant) will fail eventually in your life time. Hell i expect my implants to fail in 20+ years. Funny thing is, when it fails, the company WILL COVER EVERYTHING.

really, cochlear surgeries are nothing big as it used to be back then.

Perhaps watching a cochlear surgery will ease you up.... dont watch if dont like blood!
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7ltzA0B2X8[/ame]
 
really, cochlear surgeries are nothing big as it used to be back then.

Doctors say the same thing about a C-section. There's really no such thing as "routine surgery". As Banjo correctly stated, low risk does not mean no risk. So I guess when it comes to the matter of cochlear implants, the question to ask is which risk is greater: the surgery, or not being able to hear?
 
Dude, I'm not even a candidate for CI. My bone is eroding away. I always try to find out what the failure/success rate is for any procedure, even if it doesn't involve an implant. Being a lawyer makes me a little paranoid.
 
Yeah, you and Rick both have issues. :roll: Neither one of you know what the hell you are talking about, but spend a lot of time spouting off anyway. Nice to know that you both think I have so much credibility that you need to spend a great deal of your time trying to discredit me.:laugh2:

You'd be much better off it you spent all that time earning a few credentials of your own. Then you wouldn't have to be so jealous of those that do.:lol:

Pretty obvious that you and rick are in touch. "Hey, go look at the post I just made putting jillio in her place!" You guys are just too juvenile to even be thought of as adults. And you are doing a great job at showing people who you really are. I don't know why you keep coming back here. No one takes anything either one of you say as serious. Guess it is just that sick need for attention.

What happened to your little buddy that started this thread?

.... Paranoia strikes deep/Into your life it will creep ...
Buffalo Springfield
 
Welcome back to bizarro world for a sojourn.
Cheers Rick

Implanted A B Harmony activated Aug/07
 
I'm just curious, why is a cousin involved with such a family decision?

Because his mother cannot speak English nor has the time or luxury to something like the internet Therefore she relies on me for any decision as she is also new to the US.. even when my cousin was born she chose me a long with her husband to b In the room .. And because In her will (she is very afraid of passing away and having noone to care for him legally besides his dad who is too busy elsewhere to care for him) I will be his legal gardien if anything happens to her and we are all a very close family and look upon each others ideas and suggestions before anything
 
thanks, its something that is so complicated. where i live he will already be treated unfairly as he will be treated as a second class citizen due his race and being a minority. Although i dont feel that being deaf is a disability most people around us do. Atleast if he could hear he will be able to live a more "normal" lifestyle and will have more opportunities
 
Oh right, I would actually say Med-El is more reliable than AB. But how about the processor?

Just look at my history with AB in my sig (....lol)



Dont wanna argue but the bolded part, I have to agree. Besides the fact (if you decide to get an implant) that the child will be speaking/hearing from speech therapy, and I mean A LOT of speech therapy, i still recommend having the child learn sign. Just saying.

Right now, being 17, I had a lot, and I mean.. ALOT of speech therapy to the point where I can talk and hear very well, even people are surprised I can talk so well, and not talk "deaf". But thats because I had very intense speech program.

his father does not sign. he doesnt use asl or anything. we learned to talk to him using our own sign language almost like drawing out what we are trying to cimmunicate to him .. unfortunately while he was growing up there were any deaf schools in his area nor could his parents afford getting him to a place that did
 
I have a two and a half year old cousin who is deaf from both ears, so is hi dad.. We are considering gettin him the cochlear implant on both ease now that it is still early so he can develop speech normally.. Any comments, suggestions? The decision is a tough one to make and we want to make sure it's the right one.

a couple weeks ago he was sedated and tested for his hearing. His doctor says that he is definately a candidate for the CI. As i mentioned in a reply to someone his father does not use ASL or a legit sign language system. We communicate in ways in which the family has invented and he understand however at times it becomes difficult to understand each other. Another thing is that we feel that if he gets his implants early he will be able to speak normally. we do understand that there are risks and im not arguing against that. i wanted to use this forum not to argue but to get opinions and suggestions from different people who are like my little cousin or have had the implant or know someone who has them and their experiences with them..
 
Hi cvtorres, it's so hard to recommend anything without knowing much more about the child, his family, his environment. But if you have any specific questions about the process, daily use, or what have you, fire away.

One thing to consider is that cochlear implants aren't designed to provide typical speech, they provide access to sound. What a child can do with that sound depends on so many variables: age at implantation, electrode insertion, access to appropriate language models and full immersion in the language, and so on.

If you implant during the window of time during which a child typically develops language, there's less likelihood that he will require speech therapy, or much more than a short but intensive burst of training to catch up all that lost time. But it depends on so much in the child's environment. One of the most intensive approaches, which we haven't pursued, is AVT, and that usually completes before a child goes to school, it's generally only used for the first few years after an implant and then a child graduates.

We were concerned that we were implanting late, at 20 months, just within that 2 year optimal window (our child had no access to any language for the first year), but we find ourselves lucky in that we haven't found a need to do anything special in terms of speech therapy -- she's just developing languages as she goes about her everyday life. She has been for 4 years, however, in a bilingual school that is heavily focused on language development -- both ASL and English. So it's not like it's all just happening in the ether -- there's a concentrated effort to build fluency, and this exposure has very naturally taught her to listen and to speak and to sign. That sort of environment is one of those variables that makes a huge difference in how successfully a child can put CIs to good use.
 
thanks, its something that is so complicated. where i live he will already be treated unfairly as he will be treated as a second class citizen due his race and being a minority. Although i dont feel that being deaf is a disability most people around us do. Atleast if he could hear he will be able to live a more "normal" lifestyle and will have more opportunities

If that's the case then he'll still be discriminated against because everybody around him will know that he's not a typical hearing person. Cochlear implants are highly visible, and many of those who have them don't achieve perfect speech.

I don't know the circumstances of the family, but if it's the case that he's going to be greatly disadvantaged where he's living, it may be in the family's best interest to move somewhere more welcoming. An area with a good Deaf school and thriving Deaf community would be ideal.
 
If that's the case then he'll still be discriminated against because everybody around him will know that he's not a typical hearing person. Cochlear implants are highly visible, and many of those who have them don't achieve perfect speech.

I don't know the circumstances of the family, but if it's the case that he's going to be greatly disadvantaged where he's living, it may be in the family's best interest to move somewhere more welcoming. An area with a good Deaf school and thriving Deaf community would be ideal.

I met a dude who was bald as a cue ball and his CI was like a beacon on his head. He was telling us the difficulties he was having fitting in at his job, and all I could think was "Poor bastard."
 
If you implant during the window of time during which a child typically develops language, there's less likelihood that he will require speech therapy, or much more than a short but intensive burst of training to catch up all that lost time.

False. It can be highly variable based on a number of diverse conditions, but most children with cochlear implants require years of intensive speech therapy, and even then "oral failures" are more common than the "experts" are willing to admit.

We were concerned that we were implanting late, at 20 months, just within that 2 year optimal window (our child had no access to any language for the first year), but we find ourselves lucky in that we haven't found a need to do anything special in terms of speech therapy -- she's just developing languages as she goes about her everyday life.

Your experience is highly atypical. Parents considering implanting their child should not necessarily count on having this kind of success. They may be able to achieve similar success, but it will not be nearly as effortless as you're portraying.
 
Cvtorres - Where are you guys?

At this point of time, i would suggest sign language. It would be the best bet for the child.
 
False. It can be highly variable based on a number of diverse conditions, but most children with cochlear implants require years of intensive speech therapy, and even then "oral failures" are more common than the "experts" are willing to admit.



Your experience is highly atypical. Parents considering implanting their child should not necessarily count on having this kind of success. They may be able to achieve similar success, but it will not be nearly as effortless as you're portraying.

While pursuing a bilingual approach is atypical, the positive outcomes we've experienced with the CI itself is typical for kids implanted early enough these days. I don't know what you mean by oral failure , but I sure hope you aren't considering my child one because she attends a school for the deaf or may not articulate words as well as your average 5 year old with a CI who has taken the avt approach, but her language ability is on par with that of a typical hearing kindergartner and she's not yet in kindergarten ( for another couple of weeks) nor is she a typical hearing child.
 
While pursuing a bilingual approach is atypical...

No, that's not what I'm saying is atypical. The success your child has achieved is atypical. Most children with cochlear implants don't pick up spoken language as effortlessly as your child apparently has.

While I think it's important to share your story, it's equally important to let people know that their own child is not likely to have the same experience even with similar nurturing.

I don't know what you mean by oral failure...

It's a common enough term that I'm surprised you haven't heard of it. It's used by audiologists to describe deaf children who never learn effective verbal communication.
 
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