Changing the lives of the deaf with technology
Padma Shri ENT Head, Neck, and Cochlear implant surgeon, Dr Sandra DeSaSouza’s new book ‘Cochlear Implants: New and Future Directions’ is a compelling testimony about the benefits of cochlear implantation and its life-changing capabilities. With the book, she hopes to continue to positively influence the lives of thousands of hearing impaired by encouraging them to take advantage of the amazing advancements in modern medicine and technology
When the going gets tough, the tough get going. This is a saying that ENT Head, Neck, and Cochlear implant surgeon, Dr Sandra DeSaSouza firmly believes in and has proved time and again. Most recently, as the 79-year-old doctor decided to put her covid restricted time to constructive use, and ended up contributing to and editing an entire book!
Published by Springer Nature, ‘Cochlear Implants: New and Future Directions’ by Padma Shri Dr Sandra DeSaSouza is available on Kindle and will be available in hard copy soon. As the name suggests, the book traces the journey of cochlear implants, right since the time when the first implant was conceived around 50 years ago to today, when modern cochlear implants are smaller and provide far better hearing and speech discrimination with the evolution of technology. Covering important topics such as implantation in abnormal cochleas, bilateral implantation, implanting with acoustic and electric stimulation, and re-implantation, the book elaborates upon the various surgical techniques, with some of the chapters authored by cochlear implant surgeons known worldwide and also prominent audiologists, clinical engineers and researchers from across the world. Many of them are pioneers of their own technique themselves.
With forewords by Dr Erwin Hochmair and Dr Graeme M. Clark, who invented the first the multiple-channel cochlear implant in the world, the book is a compelling testimony about the benefits of cochlear implantation and its life-changing capabilities.
The seed of an idea
As a teenager, Sandra Desa loved visiting the Stephen High School for the Dead and Aphasic, a school started by her mother Nancy Desa for children with hearing impairments. Her father,India’s renowned neurologist and microscopic surgeon Dr Joe V Desa, encouraged her to follow her dreams. Seeing how severely this disability affects lives, young Sandra was moved tremendously and decided to work tirelessly to give back the gift of hearing to thousands of patients across the country and has never looked back since.
She became the first Indian doctor to perform cochlear implant surgery in 1987, when she performed the first ever cochlear implant surgery at a cochlear implant workshop organised at Jaslok Hospital. The Late American surgeon, Dr Jack Pulec demonstrated the procedure on four children while Dr Sandra Desa souza performed the surgery on the fifth child, becoming the first Indian doctor to do so. It is a feat that earned her a name in the Limca Book of Records. Over the years, her funding programme to offer surgery to underprivileged children has changed around 2,800 lives , and in 2020, she won the Padma Shri for her efforts.
Having noticed how hard it is for patients to get access to treatment and follow ups, especially in the poor and rural communities, Dr DeSaSouza has been running a cochlear implant surgery programme for underprivileged children with the support of her son, Dr Dillon Souza, cochlear implant surgeon at Jaslok hospital since 2002. Several of her patients today speak not one but four languages- English, Hindi, Marathi & Gujarati, an achievement that brings great pride and satisfaction to the ENT surgeon.
Impacting the lives of several generations
Dr DeSaSouza is not new to writing, having been on the editorial board of the International Tinnitus Journal and published over 40 research papers and articles, written two booklets, and co-authored and published a textbook titled Modern Concept of Neurotology. She may have created history in India, but she is certainly not one to rest on her past laurels. At 79, Dr DeSaSouza continues to stay up-to-date with changing times, attending conferences, incorporating changing technologies and advancements to assist persons with hearing impairments across India. The passionate ENT/otorhinolaryngologist cannot wait for further advancements on the horizon—a totally implantable cochlear implant and promising research on stem cells that is currently underway. Meanwhile Dr DeSaSouza and her team continue to pursue her work to ensure that every poor child with a cochlear implant is ensured of follow up maintenance, repairs and replacements of the speech processor when needed as without this, the child would be unable to hear making the entire exercise futile