Ear Implants for Children: Any foundation/orgs supporting this?

Charles Lowman

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Mar 14, 2010
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Are there any organizations or medical foundations that support expensive medical procedures for poor Dominican children? In particular, cochlear implants? Cost: $25,000DR per ear (roughly $700 US). Please inbox me with any pointers.

-Charles
 

La Profe_1

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Oct 15, 2003
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I investigated this several years ago for a child in Puerto Plata. Unless something new has been organized, there is no possibility to get help with this.

The Healing the Children Foundation declined to accept the child I was trying to help since they seemed to think that it was not a critical need. There may be options for hearing aids, if the child is a candidate for them.

ETA

I you can find a Rotary Club in your home country that would be willing to take on responsibility for fund-raising to pay for the surgery, that would be a possible option.
 
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Hillbilly

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Jan 1, 2002
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Has this child been properly diagnosed? Is there any nerve connection between ear and brain? No use doing operation if not.

Only place that does this in the northern half of the country is in Clinica Corominas. Not that expensive (unless you are a poor Dominican) at about RD$2000, I think, but can find out!!

HB
 

Charles Lowman

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I apologize for not getting back sooner to you guys. Yes, even with my limited Spanish, it appears that according to the pdf documents that the family forwarded to me from the doctor in La Vega, she has been properly diagnosed. However, if you would send me an email address, I will forward them to you. When replying to a private message regarding this case, I realized that I can't attach pdf files here.

Regards,
Charles
 

Hillbilly

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Charles: I have not received any e-mails from you. Can you please re-send them?

Cordially,

HB
 

jrjrth

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Mar 24, 2011
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@ Jrjrth Thanks for the link. I'll report back after checking with them.
@HB Thank you so much. I will forward this advice to the child's parents.

Charles,

Just curious how you faired with the information forwarded last month?? Any luck with a donation of sorts??
 

jrjrth

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Mar 24, 2011
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The family has applied for assistance through Greater Voice. Fundraising is on-going, basically through their Facebook friends and church members.

That's wonderful....hope the fundraising goes well....please give us an update if the child receives the implants....that's terrific news...I hope they get the assistance through Greater Voice.
 

Hillbilly

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The problem is that the child is seriously, seriously impaired and will not get much better with implants at this age. The best ENT person in the region advised them to wait until the child is at least 3 1/2 year old to see how it develops. It was not clear as to whether or not they did the study that shows the level of the nerve connection between the ear and the brain. Until they do that, there are still many doubts as to the wisdom of any operation.

Remember this was a premmie and with serious problems. At 90Db she can hear a little bit in one ear...on certain frequencies..

Tell the family to be calm and patient, like the good doctor said.

Regards,

HB
 

Hillbilly

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Jan 1, 2002
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AE: This issue in not getting the implants, there are lots of people that will/can do this. There are two basic issues:
1) Will the child improve over the next year and a half, which might, repeat, might, help the situation.
2) How much of a connection is there between the ear and the brain. As far as the analysis presented by the OP, this is not clear and there is no definitive prognosis in the case.

And finally, there is no urgency in this case, and the recommendation by a top ENT person was to wait a while and evaluate at a later date (at 3 1/2 years), not all that far into the future. Apparently the family is pushing for something to be done fast, for whatever reason.

The doctor they went to in La Vega is a good one in this field, that is not the issue.

HB
 

Charles Lowman

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UPDATE on Little Girl's Ear Implants

:)GREAT NEWS: Just got another update from the little girl's parents about an hour ago. I added the new photo to an update of my June 10th appeal on my Facebook page.

camilleUPDATE.jpg

Amelia Camille Jorge Azcona, is a beautiful 2 year old girl with a hearing problem called profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Amelia is the daughter of a teacher that I know in the Dominican Republic. She can't afford the cochlear implant procedure that will give her daughter hearing in at least one ear because it costs $25,000 Dominican pesos (about$663 US dollars) per implant. As a teacher in Dominican Republic, Amelia's mother makes $8/hour to do the same job that American teachers do at $25/hr.
Imagine that if 100 people skipped Starbucks for one morning and instead donated the $7 to give the gift of hearing to a child. I promised my comrade that I would go to work on this project to see what could be done to assist on my end. If anyone is interested please inbox me for further details.

UPDATE: Camille underwent successful cochlear implant surgery earlier this morning. I just received this photo from the parents. Thanks to all who sacrificed a couple of cups of Starbucks latte and sent in your donations. May God reward all of you for your help in giving the gift of hearing to this child.
 

jrjrth

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Mar 24, 2011
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Wonderful News....

Its so nice when things fall in place....

~God Bless the family and all who donated~

~There is a Greater Voice for all to hear~