Olivia is 3 1/2 years old and was switched on 19 months ago with bilateral Med Els in October 2010.
She is our youngest daughter and has 2 older sisters aged 5 and 7.
She was first diagnosed with moderate to severe hearing loss at around 16 months of age in April 2010 and had a couple of months of good responses with hearing aids. However by August 2010 her hearing had deteriorated to a profound level. We now understand the likely cause of her progressive hearing loss to be CMV (cytomegalovirus) which was showing in her blood at birth when her guthrie card was retested last year.
She was implanted on 30 September 2010, and we were fortunate to be able to take up Med El’s offer at the time of a 50% discount for a second implant. We were also lucky to be given a loan by family members to cover that cost of giving Olivia her second ear.
Olivia has made great progress in her 19 months of hearing. She has excellent receptive language skills and her expressive language is increasing every day.
She attends creche 20 hours a week and has a great bunch of hearing friends and by all accounts holds her own well amongst them.
We are hopeful that we can have her language skills caught up to her peers by the time she starts school at the beginning of 2014.
Cochlear Implants in New Zealand 