Case studies

Maria’s Story

Meet Maria, a little ten-year girl in the Ohangwena district of northern Namibia. She was brought along to meet the HARK! team by her grandmother, who explained that Maria had been ill and had ‘fallen asleep’. She had subsequently been in a coma for some weeks, evidently suffering from meningitis. When she awoke she was in many ways her old playful self – but she had become deaf. The HARK! team were able to carry out a hearing assessment, and reached the conclusion that she would benefit from a hearing aid. Both the girl and her granny were shown how to fit and look-after the aid.

Quetha’s Story

This is Quetha, from a small mountain village called Dilly Dilly, in the Quthing District of Lesotho. Aged eighteen, he has only spent two weeks at school in his life, as his teachers sent him home because he couldn’t follow the lessons. When our HARK mobile clinic arrived in Dilly Dilly for the first time, his grandfather brought him along to see if there was a problem with his ears. He was quickly assessed. It was found that his hearing was very poor, but that he could be helped with a hearing aid. So, his life in the hearing world is about to begin. The arrival of HARK Lesotho may have come too late to allow him to benefit from a childhood enriched by education, but for many of the other, younger children the HARK team examined in Dilly Dilly that day, help has arrived just in time.

Saada’s Story

Saada’s parents could see she was bright, but didn’t know how to communicate with her. Not being able to hear her teachers properly meant she quickly grew bored, frustrated and disruptive, and her teacher wrote her off as naughty and unteachable.

But when Saada was seven, Sound Seekers came to her village and things turned around. A Sound Seekers specialist identified the problem and found that a hearing aid was all she needed to hear clearly for the first time. Nervous at first, she soon began to learn, and to play. Before long, she was indistinguishable from any other little girl in the playground. If we had let her potential remain obscured by something as simple and treatable as a hearing problem, she would never have been able to shine.

Fatamata’s Story

Fatamata is an 11 year old girl from the town of Bansang in The Gambia.  She has one brother and one sister.  The Gambia HARK! visited Bansang for the the first time in February 2010 and Fatamata’s mother brought her along to see the team after they visited her school. Her mother said they noticed that she had a hearing loss about 3 years ago although there had been no obvious illness to account for why this had happened.

Her audiogram showed a moderate to severe loss in the right ear, and a profound loss in the left. She was fitted with a hearing aid for her right ear.

Her mother was very upset, and told how she had disciplined Fatamata as she thought wasn’t listening or hearing what she was saying.  Our audiologist patiently and carefully explained the nature of her loss to the mother who wanted to know if there was any medication to take to cure it.  She was upset to learn it would be permanent and sought her husband’s advice.  He said (about the hearing aid) that ‘if it helps the child then it is OK’.  The audiologist was able to bring this mother together with another and compare Fatamata’s audiogram with that of another child from the same school who also attended following the ITOD visit the day before.  Fatamata’s mother was comforted by this. Fatamata has now been fitted with her hearing aid and

Babadou’s Story

Babadou is an old man who came to visit the HARK! because his family have recently noticed that he is not able to hear them. This is suspected to be due to a recent bout of malaria. He was tested with the audiometer and bone conduction unit and was found to have severe to profound hearing loss in both ears but far worse in his right, in both ears he had lost all of his hearing in the higher ranges. Yakka, one of our audiologists, concluded that he would benefit from a hearing aid on the left ear. He was incredibly happy to learn that something could be done to help him, especially because his family had been so concerned that he would be hit by a car due to not being able to hear it, or get into some other kind of accident, that they had not let him go out alone. Yakka explained to him about the hearing aid he would receive and how it would work and took an impression of his ear for an earmould. A week later his hearing aid was fitted and he was delighted with the results.

Fanta’s Story

This 47 year old woman has had a hearing loss for about 9 years.  It was reported that the loss occurred after the birth of her 6th child and she had otoxic drugs and a forceps delivery due to complications.

Her audio showed the following:

Right Ear            85 / 100 / 100 / 100 / 100 / NR
Left Ear            90 / 90 / 80 / 85 / 75 / 75

Ear moulds were made and she was given two BE54 post aural hearing aids.  Her response was a joy to behold, grinning from ear to ear and looking completely delighted with hearing sound again!