BionicEar.com - Harmony Cochlear Implant by Advanced Bionics

6 year old male
Hearing loss resulted from illness shortly after birth
Implanted at 16 months

The following story is one person's experience with a cochlear implant. Your experience may be very different. Success with a cochlear implant is influenced by many factors including how long a person has had hearing loss, the age a person receives an implant, medical and anatomical factors and more. Please consult your cochlear implant professional and/or the Bionic Ear Association with questions.

June 2008 Update to Story (by Melissa Li)

A lot has changed with Brandyn over the last two years. He is now 8 years old and went bilateral last March (about 7 years old at the time). He was also upgraded to HiRes 120 and wears Harmonies on both ears. He is doing great with his second implant. He has one CII and one 90K. Brandyn is mainstreamed and just finished second grade. Brandyn continues to play piano very well and we were just informed that he has perfect pitch. (I didn't think this was possible with a child with implants!) He loves classical music and his favorite song to play is Fur Elise. He will be starting the cello in 3rd grade; the music director thinks he will do well.

Original Story

And then the Li family couldn’t wait for the day of cochlear implant activation. Brandyn, the oldest child of Melissa

and John Li of Northbrook, Illinois, was born with normal hearing, but lost it soon afterward due to illness. He received an Advanced Bionics cochlear implant at 16 months and hears today as though he had no hearing loss whatsoever. Melissa talks about the operation and the implant activation that followed, both of which occurred at The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “The surgery took just over two hours, but it felt like it went on for the entire day. We paced and paced and paced in the waiting room. Finally, we received word that the surgery went well, and we all breathed a giant sigh of relief. They discharged Brandyn the next day.”

“Forty-eight hours after surgery, he was back to his old self, running and jumping all over the place. I was shocked. A month later it was time to go to the audiologist for Brandyn’s initial mapping session, where they would turn on the implant for the first time. I tried not to let my hopes get out of hand; I told myself that I’d be happy if he only gets a little something out of the implant. He didn’t even get that much. During the entire session, he didn’t react to anything the audiologist tried. I was crushed.” “But, that evening, back in our room at the hotel, Brandyn started tapping a spoon on the cooler we’d brought with us. I was watching him tap harder and harder, making a louder and louder sound each time until, all of a sudden, he started flinching in response. That was something I’d never seen him do before. At that moment I realized he can hear. Oh my gosh, he can hear!” “I had, for the longest time, dreamed that Brandyn would be like any other kid. And today, at age six, he very much is.”

(Interview by Rich Smith)