World Hearing Day
3rd March every year is marked as World Hearing Day.
Hearing loss is one of the set backs that may affect a person with Down syndrome, so I’ll be including it in the ongoing sensitization by the Engraced Ones as we count down to the celebration of World Down syndrome day 2024.
The theme for this year’s World Hearing Day is, “Changing mindsets: Let’s make ear and hearing care a reality for all!”
My daughter had wax in her ears for 12 years! We visited several Otolaryngologists in Nigeria but didn’t get results. I think they had a very unfriendly approach and couldn’t get my daughter to respond appropriately. There was also the problem of obsolete equipment. On one occasion, the Otolaryngologist advised me to stop worrying because the child could hear.
Well, i knew there was a problem!
This child was born with ear canals so narrow that neither i nor her doctors had been able to take off wax from her ears from birth (she was 8 years old at the time). Also, she was limited in speech, which made it impossible for her to complain if anything went wrong with her ears. Routine hearing assessment is mandatory for people with her condition because there is a high rate of hearing impairment as a result of weakened immunity and an unusually narrow ear canal.
A few weeks ago, we took her for another assessment (4 years after the ordeal i narrated earlier). It took about 3 weeks to have the wax of 12 years cleaned out! Of course, state of the art equipment was used.
The implication of this is that some children and adults with DS and some other conditions could develop hearing problems because we lack the requisite gadgets to make ear and hearing care a reality for all!
What happens to so many children born different who may not have access to the kind of support my child got?
By WHO estimates, about 80% of ear and hearing needs remain unmet.
Sadly, societal misperceptions and stigmatization are implicated as reasons why more people than necessary experience hearing loss.
What then should be done to improve access to hearing aids and other measures that can prevent hearing loss or make its management more holistic?
Today, we call on the government to invest in this aspect of our health. To parents, we plead with you to seek a second opinion if need be as we keep walking towards a society where deafness is reduced to the barest minimum.
#WorldHearingDay
#WDSD2024
#SpecialParenting
##DownSyndromeAwareness
#Hearing