Two-year-old J’dae Prescott-Griffith, the very first recipient on the island to benefit from cochlear implant surgery, gives a thumbs up to signal her delight with the procedure, which has given her the gift of hearing. She was accompanied by her parents, Damian Griffith and Janelle Prescott (left); Phillipa Challis (right), one of the Trustees of the Sandy Lane Charitable Trust; Dr. Daniel Coelho (second from right), Medical Director of the VCU School of Medicine’s Cochlear Implant Programme, the surgeon who performed the procedure; and other key partners in the collaborative venture.
CUTTING-EDGE SURGERY
Thu, 05/26/2016 - 12:00am
Two-year-old receives first cochlear implant
By:
Regina Selman Moore
ON Monday, May 23, two-year-old J’dae Prescott-Griffith received a life-changing operation at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH). She was the very first recipient on the island to benefit from cochlear implant surgery, which now forms part of a Healthy Hearing Programme, an initiative of the Sandy Lane Charitable Trust and two other organisations.
According to Phillipa Challis, one of the Trustees of the Sandy Lane Charitable Trust, J’dae, who will celebrate her third birthday on September 16 this year, received the gift of hearing for the first time in her life, thanks to surgeon Dr. Daniel Coelho, Medical Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine’s (VCU) Cochlear Implant Programme and he was assisted by Dr. Roy Forde and Dr. Chris Maynard of the QEH. She explained that the Sandy Lane Charitable Trust teamed up with the World Paediatric Project (WPP) and the QEH to make it all possible.
Speaking at a press conference held yesterday at the Sandy Lane Country Club, Challis explained that the Trust recognised the growing need in Barbados for cochlear implant surgery. A cochlear implant is an electronic medical device that replaces the function of the damaged inner ear. Having approached the WPP for assistance, the initial response was that it did not cover this aspect. However, the WPP worked behind the scenes to find a willing surgeon and an audiologist and the Trust jumped at the opportunity.
The end result was J’dae’s groundbreaking cochlear implant surgery. Following this surgery, cochlear implant programming will now take place for all children who need it, at the Children’s Development Centre (CDC) here in Barbados, facilitated by senior audiologists Dr. Sean Kastetter and Dr. Jennifer White, also of VCU in the USA.
“The Sandy Lane Charitable Trust’s role in this Healthy Hearing Mission in the first instance, is to provide whatever funding is necessary to ensure the Barbados mission is achieved – flights and accommodation for the WPP team, the actual cochlear implant itself, which even at a heavily discounted price thanks to Dr. Daniel Coelho (is) still Bds$40 000, the supplies, the shipping and the administration of co-ordinating the patients,” Challis remarked.
“Secondly, to provide the equipment support for the CDC here in Barbados, to purchase new equipment for the programming and ongoing testing, to pay for a technician to fly in for 24 hours to calibrate all the new and existing equipment,” she also revealed.
J’dae’s parents, Janelle Prescott and Damian Griffith, had nothing but high praise for the Trust and its partners. Her father expressed the joy they felt as they watched their little girl respond to the barking of a dog for the first time this week. Though she will have to undergo speech therapy, they are thankful she can turn this new chapter in her life.