Rare “auditory brain stem implant” brings hope of hearing and speech for toddler

4 July 2007

Specialists from the Royal Victorian Eye & Ear Hospital yesterday “switched on” a toddler’s auditory brain stem implant – the last hope of bringing hearing and speech to the profoundly deaf 3-year-old.  

On 16 May, Jorja Steele, of Christchurch, New Zealand, became the first child in the Southern Hemisphere to be surgically-implanted with the hearing device, which is based on the concept of a cochlear implant, but directly stimulates the hearing nerve on the brain stem. While this rare operation has been successfully performed on around 30 adults in Australia, this is the first time a child has undergone this procedure outside of Europe.

The Eye & Ear Hospital’s Head of Cochlear Implant Surgery, Mr Rob Briggs, said it was still too early to say whether the implant had resulted in any hearing for Jorja, but the device did appear to be working well in yesterday’s “switch on” session, which was encouraging.

“Yesterday was the first step in a long journey for Jorja,” Mr Briggs said. “The challenge now is to teach Jorja how to recognise sounds created by the implant.”

“She will never regain full hearing but, based on our experience with adults, we hope that children like Jorja will achieve even better outcomes using the implant.”

Jorja has travelled from New Zealand with her parents, Jack and Megan, to undergo this specialist treatment after becoming profoundly deaf a week before her 1^st birthday – the result of meningitis. Jorja was unable to achieve hearing through a bilateral cochlear implant, because the meningitis caused extensive inner ear damage. The brain stem implant is her last chance to hear or talk.

Jorja’s mum, Megan Steele, said choosing for Jorja to undergo major surgery and years of treatment involved with the auditory brain stem implant was the hardest decision she and her husband had ever made.

 “Georgia’s such a happy, intelligent little girl and we love her, regardless of whether she can hear or not,” Mrs Steele said. “We just want the best for her so if she could hear, even a little bit, that will help her learn how to speak and give her more opportunities and independence.”

Jorja’s surgery was a collaborative undertaking by three Melbourne hospitals and was performed at The Royal Children’s Hospital by Mr Robert Briggs (Head of Surgical Program, Cochlear Implant Clinic, Royal Victorian Eye & Ear Hospital), Miss Wirginia Maixner (Director of Neurosurgery, The Royal Children’s Hospital) and Professor Andrew Kaye (Director of Neurosurgery, Royal Melbourne Hospital).

Her implant was “switched on” at the Eye & Ear Hospital but it is expected that her long term care will be managed by audiologists in Christchurch.

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