A magical moment was witnessed at the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital (NMAH) on Wednesday when little Qiqa Njiva who was born profoundly deaf, heard sound for the first time.
Even though there were tears when Qiqa, 3, heard the first sounds after the electrodes in her cochlear implant were activated, her eventual and obvious delight was shared by on-lookers and her equally overjoyed family.
Qiqa’s journey to overcoming her deafness began late last year when she underwent the cochlear implant operation, and on Wednesday the device was switched on.
Minutes into the session, the little girl was able to hear her mom, Sinovuyo, say her name for the first time.
Sinovuyo said it was such a strange feeling to see her daughter respond to her name and to finally hear Qiqa make those child-like sounds.
“It’s very heartwarming and we are so happy and she also seems happy. At first she was scared and cried because she was obviously born into silence, so this is a whole new world for her, we are so grateful to the hospital,” said Sinovuyo.
Assistant director in speech therapy and audiology at NMAH, Tshepo Osemwenkhae called it “Qiqa’s hearing birthday”.
Audiologist Adri Schlichting explained that the electrical currents stimulated the nerves which the brain interpreted as sounds. “Then over the next couple of weeks, the volume will be increased gradually to give her more sound because we cannot give her the maximum sound all at once as that will be overwhelming and give her a fright, and so we will see her over the next two weeks, then we will see her over three-month intervals, then six months and then annually.”..