The sounds of success
15-year-old one of more than 15,000 youths to get surgery
By Elaine Marsilio (Contact)
Monday, February 9, 2009
CORPUS CHRISTI — Andy Garza heard his mother’s voice for the first
time when he was 14.
“Andy, I love you.”
It was September 2007, and a month after Andy’s cochlear implant
surgery. Sandra Ortiz stood across from her son as the doctor turned
on his battery-operated processor.
He asked in sign language if he was hearing music.
“He thought my voice was music,” Ortiz said.
Then Andy heard ocean waves crash.
And jet engines rumble.
And hip-hop music, which he now enjoys the most.
He wants other deaf children to experience the same sounds, through
cochlear implantation — a surgical procedure that places a small
device under the ear’s skin to help transmit noises to the brain.
Andy and his mother started Andy’s Day One Fund at Driscoll
Children’s Hospital in December. The fund was set up to help
low-income children needing cochlear implants afford the surgery,
which can cost as much as $200,000.
“It’s to keep it going kind of like a pay-it-forward,” Ortiz said,
noting Andy received an anonymous donation for most of his surgery.
Driscoll paid for some of the surgery as well, Ortiz said.
Martha St. Romain, vice president for development at Driscoll, worked
with Ortiz on setting up the fund, which likely will increase
children’s accessibility to the cochlear implant program at the
hospital.
“There are so many needs and there are never enough resources,” she
said. “This program is just another example of health care that is
available.”
Andy, who was born with bilateral profound deafness, tried other
methods, such as hearing aids, and attended the Texas School for the
Deaf in Austin for a short time before receiving the implant. The
Kaffie Middle School eighth-grader now works on speech therapy at
school and Driscoll. He learns how to move his mouth, form words and
read lips.
The small device implanted under the skin is aided with the help of a
processor worn externally behind the ear. The battery-operated
processor and connected microphone help transmit noises to a person’s
hair cells in the ear through the nerves and then to the brain. A
transmitter and stimulator are used to convert noises into impulses
directly to the ear or brain.
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders
reports that at the end of 2006 — the most recent year for which
statistics were available — about 23,000 American adults and 15,500
American children had received the implants.
Ortiz said the family waited for technology to evolve before she
finally asked Andy if he wanted to undergo the procedure.
“It’s a scary decision to make,” she said, noting she wanted Andy to
be sure he wanted the procedure. In addition, the NIDCD reports there
are complications that can arise from the implantation surgery, and
that not all patients respond in similar ways.
Benna Timperlake, executive director of The Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Center, said implantation can work for people who have exhausted other
efforts, such as hearing aids.
“People who can’t use hearing aids need other options,” she said.
“That’s where the implants are wonderful.”
Andy is a typical teenage boy, Ortiz said, noting he plays on his
Nintendo Wii, listens to rock music and likes girls.
He dreams of becoming a pilot, and he often asks his mom for
assurance.
“I tell him that you can be anything that you want to be,” she said.
Contact Elaine Marsilio at 886-3794 or [email protected]
ANDY’S DAY ONE FUND
Andy Garza and his mother, Sandra Ortiz, have started Andy’s Day One
Fund to raise funds for low-income children who can’t afford cochlear
implant surgery.
Andy, who was born with profound deafness, underwent the surgery in
2007.
To make a donation, call 694-6405, or mail donations to Driscoll
Children’s Hospital Development Office, 3533 S Alameda St., Corpus
Christi, TX 78411.
DRISCOLL RADIOTHON
Sandra Ortiz will be a guest speaker during Driscoll Children’s
Hospital’s seventh Annual K99 Radiothon live from the Driscoll lobby
about 10 a.m. Friday to talk about the Day One Fund. The radiothon,
which runs from 6 a.m. Thursday to noon Saturday, raises money for
Driscoll’s specialized pediatric programs and equipment. Donors can
specify for their contribution to go directly to Andy’s Day One Fund,
said Martha St. Romain, Driscoll vice president for development.
Source:
http://www.caller.com/news/2009/feb/09/the-sounds-of-success-15-year-old-one-of-more-to/