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Cochlear Implant Med-el

Discussion
Posted by dkm
16/09/20 11:42 AM

Hello,

My 3 year daughter has been recommended to go for Cochlear Implants, and my husband and I also agree with this recommendation. We are now in the midst of making a decision on which Instrument is the best for her as the Surgeon has recommended Med-el for her, but the final decision is ours. We know all 3 are good in it's own way and will also give her the support she needs. Just wanted to know from parents or users out there who has experience with Med-el. Any features you like about this Instrument? How is their swimwear? Any information will be helpful. Thank you.

Regards, DKM

Discussion
Posted by maddie'sdad
30/09/20 03:18 PM

Hi, our daughter had pneumococcal meningitis at 7 months and has had a unilateral Med El implant for the past 15 years that has been trouble-free. We did not have a choice at the outset and have had one hardware upgrade around 5 years ago.

Allied to the Roger pen, she has been able to navigate her way to year 11 at school without any particular issues beyond comprehension of complex scientific language and she is very happy with the device both there and at home or in other social situations.

You mention swimming. We have never used the device anywhere near the sea or swimming pool so cannot comment on that. We have rescued one (the old model) from the bottom of a water closet and successfully dried it out in the drying pot though. She has also avoided contact sports, again to protect the device.

Regular programming has tailed off slightly. It used to be annual but is now less frequent - non-existent post Covid 19 - but she has always been happy with the audiologists' ability to tweak the device to fit her hearing loss chart when they have carried out an audiological review. We suspect there is huge local variation with this though.

Of course, we cannot comment on the other models but Maddie has grown up as a Med El user and her linguistic ability has exceeded initial expectations by some margin. She has become adept at knowing when she wants to take it off and zone out (she is 16 now!) and likes the independence this provides.

We are also fans of the Med El from a size, weight, colour and appearance perspective and the current version (with rechargeable batteries) is more adaptable, particularly with the emergency shoe that does take 'normal' batteries and which comes into its own when she is staying away and doesn;t want to take the battery charger with her.

We hope this helps and are perfectly happy to answer any other queries that may be relevant.

Good luck!