BENGALURU: He’s fun-loving and energetic, just like any other twenty-eight-year-old. Except that Jagadish Kanamadi has been blind since birth. Jagdish also started losing his hearing at the age of twenty-one due to a disease called Ushers Syndrome. A hearing aid was of no use as his hearing kept deteriorating. The only option left for Jagdeesh was a ear implant.
"I never lose hope," he says, while speaking to Deccan Chronicle about that phase. His sister, who is working in the city, approached Dr Vasanthi Anand, the head of the cochlear implant program at the Manasa Cochlear Implant and ENT centre. The doctor was impressed by the patient’s positive attitude. "He was always full of life and he never sounded depressed, unlike other patients with hearing loss," says Dr Vasanthi Anand. After doing an aided audiogram test and seeing his speech recognition score, she got his CT Scan and MRI done to see whether the cochlear was normal. "After running all the tests we found that Jagdish was an ideal cochlear implant candidate. His cochlear hair cell was damaged," adds the doctor.
Since the implant cost ran up to Rs 5.8 lakh, the hospital approached former health minister U.T. Khader, who mobilised Rs 2 lakh. “Rs 3 lakh was given to us by the Central government's PM National relief fund, while the balance was arranged by the family," says Dr Vasanthi Anand.
Three weeks after the surgery (after the implant surgery wounds healed) when the doctors switched on the external device, Jagdish was far from delighted. “Everything around me sounded like a broken tape recorder. That was the first time I was really depressed," says Jagadish, who can now speak comfortably on the phone as well.
Jagadish used to travel all the way from Bijapur to Bengaluru on his own for the Auditory-Verbal Therapy and after thirteen such sessions he could easily use his Cochlear Implant to listen, understand and converse. He added that now the hospital also asked him to speak to many patients to infuse confidence in them.
The 28-year-old adds that he has several diplomas and degrees and has finished his computer course. “I want to be a lecturer and am planning to appear for the Karnataka Administrative Service exams. I am currently teaching at a school in Humnabad and I teach all the subjects,” said Jagadish, who has completed his Masters in Sociology and B.Ed as well.
