Free Republic

RUSH: Bud in Stow, Ohio. Great to have you on the program, sir. How are you? CALLER: How you doing, Rush? RUSH: Very good. Thanks. CALLER: Been listening to you since August 1st, 1988, and I listen through all your trials and stuff. And I just gotta let you know Wednesday of last week I had cochlear implant surgery. RUSH: You did? CALLER: Yes. My right ear had total hearing loss. It was sudden. I went to bed one night, it was fine; got up the next morning, it was gone. And I just wanted to let you know just...

Researchers at UNSW Australia have for the first time used electrical pulses delivered from a cochlear implant to deliver gene therapy, thereby successfully regrowing auditory nerves. The research also heralds a possible new way of treating a range of neurological disorders, including Parkinson's disease, and psychiatric conditions such as depression through this novel way of delivering gene therapy. The research is published today (Thursday 24 April) in the journal Science Translational Medicine. "People with cochlear implants do well with understanding speech, but their perception of pitch can be poor, so they often miss out on the joy of music," says...

Gurgling in a mix of wonder and joy, this is the incredible moment a child hears his mother's voice for the first time.Eight-month-old Jonathan was born deaf and had cochlear implants put into his ears so he could hear.His father filmed the tear-jerking moment they were turned on for the first time, capturing the amazement in the boy's face as he heard his mother's voice saying his name.Video at link Seconds before the implant is turned on, Jonathan rests peacefully in his mother's arms The implant is turned on - and Jonathan, hearing his mother's voice for the first time,...

September 17, 2009: Rush Limbaugh has donated $500,000 to the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles in memory of Antonio De la Cruz, MD, who treated Limbaugh beginning in 2001 for the sudden hearing loss due to auto-immune inner ear disease. Limbaugh ultimately had a cochlear implant to restore his hearing and told the Los Angeles Times recently , "Dr. De la Cruz literally saved my career and got me my life back with that surgery. I wouldn't have been able to continue my career For a month before I had the implant surgery, I did my show totally deaf."...

ADULTS in need of a cochlear implant will have to wait up to 30 years for the procedure. About 60 people are on the waiting list to receive the electronic hearing device at Flinders Medical Centre, where only two such operations are performed each year. Opposition health spokesman Dean Brown, who raised the issue in a Budget estimates committee, has called on the State Government to fund the program. "There is an obligation on the state to ensure that people with hearing disability have the greatest chance of overcoming that disability," he said. Port Noarlunga toolmaker Sam Loeser, 26, cancelled...