Patient May Hear Good News New Cochlear Implant Holds Promise For Hearing Impaired, Thanks To New Chip

Sandra Tate can’t hear the rain on the roof and she has trouble reading lips.

She’s been deaf for 43 years and is going blind.

But if an operation performed last week is successful, Tate may hear again.

Tate, who is 56 and lives in Kellogg, underwent surgery last Monday to get a new type of cochlear implant. The electronic devices turn sound waves into thousands of electrical impulses, which then are sent to the inner ear and the brain.

The federal Food and Drug Administration has approved two cochlear implants for general use. Tate was the first person in the country to be given the new Med-El implant, now approved for investigation by the FDA. The agency is studying whether the implant, now used in Europe, is safe and effective.

The Med-El has a more powerful computer chip than its predecessors.

“If I could do only one operation, I would choose to do cochlear implants all the time,” said Dr. Neil Giddings, the only Spokane doctor who performs the surgery. “There is nothing better than giving somebody back their hearing.”

Giddings has performed about 40 cochlear implants in Spokane since 1994.

After learning that Medicare would cover part of the surgery, Tate decided to try the test device. The surgery costs more than $24,000, and Medicare covers about $7,000.

Giddings said the two-hour procedure went perfectly.

As with other cochlear implants, a receiver was placed under Tate’s skin behind her ear. The electrode carrier then was fed into the inner ear. The electrode stimulates the auditory nerve, allowing a person to hear sounds.

Tate will heal for the next few weeks. She’ll then receive an external device that will be connected to the receiver by a magnet.

A computer speech processor that’s slightly larger than a deck of cards will be hooked up to the implant through a wire.

The devices are controversial. Some critics say the operation promises unrealistic results.

Giddings said only one Spokane man who has received an implant chooses not to wear the speech processor all day.

The implants have varied results. About 70 percent of patients do well enough to talk on a telephone.

“It’s very difficult to predict what people will get from the implant,” said Darla Franz, a clinical research associate with Med-El Corp. in North Carolina.

Tate will have to learn to hear again.

In December, she’ll start working on distinguishing between similar-sounding words, like “mad” or “bad.”

“She says she misses the rain, the thunder, the birds, the radio,” said her son, Michael Browning, who also is hearing impaired.

“She used to sing with the radio. I really believe she’d be a different person if she could hear.”

Tate’s hearing was never perfect, but she lost it completely when she was 13.

Tate doesn’t use sign language. She reads lips to communicate, but now she’s slowly losing her eyesight.

“It’s so hard to communicate with her,” Browning said.

“I want to talk about so many things. When she gets her hearing back, we’ll probably talk each other’s heads off.”

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