Giving the Ability to Hear
Diagnosed with bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss as an infant, Katrina Strauts underwent cochlear implant surgery in her right ear when she was just 18 months old. She responded very well to the surgery and spent the next few years in intensive speech therapy learning to hear. As hearing technology continued to improve, her mother, Heather, began researching whether Katrina might benefit from a second cochlear implant. She learned that patients experience the greatest benefit from a second implant when the surgery is completed no later than four years after the first implant; Katrina was nearing that threshold.
Heather didn’t want to return to the downtown Chicago academic medical center where Katrina had her first implant because her surgeon was no longer there. She contacted Adventist Hinsdale Hospital after hearing a commercial about the hospital’s pediatric audiology program and talked to Dawn W. Maniskas, pediatric audiologist and coordinator of the hospital’s pediatric audiology and cochlear implant program, and Otologist/Neurotologist Robert Battista, MD, medical director of the pediatric audiology and cochlear implant program.
“Maniskas told me everything I needed to know about the program. She and Dr. Battista were so complimentary of Katrina’s progress and excited to see what could happen with an implant in her second ear,” says Heather, a resident of the small community of Oakwood Hills in McHenry County. “Meeting them made our decision easy. I was so comfortable with them and knew they cared about our family as people, not just patients.”
Dr. Battista implanted the cochlear device in Katrina’s left ear in March 2009 at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital. Over the past 12 months, Katrina, now in kindergarten, has successfully acclimated to the second cochlear implant. With two implants, it’s easier for her to tell where sounds are coming from. The dual implants also overcome noisy environments, filtering out background noise and making it easier for her to hear speech. Katrina now speaks and hears almost as well as children her age who were born with the ability to hear; she even joined a local cheerleading squad. And when she enters first grade in the fall she will no longer utilize a sign language interpreter – a development that excites her family.
“Her progress has been phenomenal,” Maniskas says.
Heather has recommended Adventist Hinsdale Hospital’s pediatric audiology program to parents of deaf and hard-of-hearing children searching for services because it provides “the best overall experience.”
“At bigger hospitals, you don’t have the same relationship with the audiology department,” Heather says. “But at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, you feel part of the team. You’re not a number. You’re a patient. When you call, the receptionist remembers who you are. That’s important to me.”
Dr. Battista and the other physicians at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital’s Center for Hearing Restoration and Ear Research offer patients and their families a comprehensive range of diagnostic services and surgical treatments for ear and hearing problems. This includes profound deafness treated with cochlear implants, perforations of the eardrum, otosclerosis, acoustic tumors, balance disorders and facial nerve problems. Doctors at the center provide local patients an opportunity to receive expert services close to home. The center also participates in national clinical trials, giving patients an opportunity to be among the first to experience cutting-edge medicine.
“We take care of the child and the family – not just the hearing problem,” Dr. Battista says.
