On Thursday, 23rd of last month, a good number of our members visited the Cochlear Implant Centre at Gladesville, followed by a two-course lunch at the Massey Park Golf Club, then a visit to the Kokoda Track Memorial Walking Trail in Concord West. The tour was fully booked.
On arrival at the Implant Centre, and following a staff member’s encouragement to do so, our coach driver skillfully guided his huge coach into the narrow driveway to much applause from his appreciative passengers. We walked through the site (short walk) to arrive at a lecture theatre where we enjoyed tea (or coffee) and bikkies, courtesy of our coach driver before receiving a very interesting talk by our host as she explained the history and workings of cochlear implants to restore hearing to those affected by deafness.
The system was invented by Australian physician, Graeme Clark with the first prototype implanted in a patient in 1978. It produced “hearing sensations”. Later development led to the first successful clinical trial in 1982. The system consists of an outer part and an inner part. The outer part appears similar to a conventional hearing aid but converts sounds to digital signals which are magnetically transmitted to the inner part. The inner part is surgically implanted under the skin behind the ear and has a magnetic signal receiver, connected to an electrode array which stimulates the hearing nerve fibres in the inner ear (cochlea). Signals are sent, via the hearing nerve to the brain where they are recognised as sound.
After a detailed description of the history, design and operation of the system, our host answered many questions from our audience and received a thankful round of applause before she introduced Sue Walters, the first person in NSW to be fitted with a cochlea implant. Sue lost her hearing in her 20’s after a bout of meningococcal meningitis. She explained what a weird sensation it was to be unable to hear even her own voice. Another interesting talk as Sue related her experiences in learning to hear again. The system produces digital sounds rather than analogue so, instead of hearing all the sound frequencies, she only gets a series of clipped sequences. Music that she used to enjoy now sounds strange and is not so enjoyable any more. That said, she can now hear speech very clearly after teaching herself to listen to the initial strange sounds. Again, after a most interesting and entertaining talk, Sue received an appreciative round of applause from our grateful audience.
On leaving the Implant Centre we were taken to the Massey Park Golf Club where lunches were served to order, very quickly considering our large number. We then went on to the Kokoda Track Memorial Walk near Concord Hospital to view the 22 stations along the 800m walkway with pictures and stories relating the history of this WW2 battle to defeat the Japanese invasion of New Guinea. Then home to end a very enjoyable day.
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