How Chloe got her bone conduction implants

Chloe was diagnosed with bilateral moderate to severe sensorineural deafness at just a few weeks old and was fitted with behind-the-ear hearing aids at seven weeks old.

Over the next year, regular hearing tests revealed that her hearing loss was more complicated, and we were told she actually had mixed sensorineural and conductive hearing loss due to an issue with her middle ear bones.

By 14 months old, she was fitted with bone anchored hearing aids (BAHAs) on a softband. At this first appointment we were shown the Med-El BONEBRIDGE conduction implant [Med-El website], so we knew that was an option for Chloe as she got older.

The BAHAs were a real changing point for Chloe. It was obvious really quickly that she could hear more.

Over the next few years, Chloe continued to do well with her hearing aids, but gradually her hearing deteriorated to severe to profound, and she was approved for the BONEBRIDGE implant just before lockdown in 2020.

It was 2023 before things got moving again. By this time, the Cochlear Osia conductive implant [Cochlear website] was available, and we needed to choose between the two devices.

After lots of consideration, we chose the Osia from Cochlear. Chloe had been using Cochlear BAHAs, and the new Osia would connect to her existing mini mic, so we felt it was the best choice for her.

We spent a lot of time preparing Chloe for the implant surgery. We spoke to her about how she was going to go into hospital to have a sleep while the doctor put her new magnets in, ready for her new hearing processors. Chloe had an idea of the concept of hearing implants from seeing others using them, and her Teacher of the Deaf made a doll with little magnetic processors that Chloe could place on the doll.

I joined a group on Facebook for patients receiving or considering the Osia implants and found really useful advice like being prepared for neck ache after the surgery and not being able to use her softband for a while during healing.

Everything went really well on the day of the surgery. Chloe went down at 8.30am and was in surgery for just under two hours.

When we first saw her, she was already awake and angry about the huge pressure bandage around her head – it looked like a helmet. We had warned Chloe about having a big bandage, but she wasn’t happy and managed to pull it off. Luckily the surgeon agreed she could leave it off if she felt happier without it.

Chloe was allowed home mid-afternoon.

Over the next few days, neck pain was the only pain Chloe complained about. We used a travel neck pillow, and also found wheat pillows warmed in the microwave were helpful. We kept her dosed up with paracetamol for a few days, and she managed so well.

We were grateful that we had always used basic signing with Chloe as a back up to spoken communication. It really made the first few days a lot easier while she was unable to hear much.

Around five days after the surgery, we were able to carefully put on Chloe’s softband. Due to the implant locations, we placed this with the BAHAs on her temples, whereas before we’d place them closer to her ears.

Chloe’s surgery was on 1 August, and her activation date was 12 October. The difference was immediate. Within days, we noticed that Chloe was correcting her speech, for example, saying the middle sounds of longer words that she had been missing before.

Several months on and Chloe is thriving and absolutely loves her implants!