ENT surgeon Dr. Christopher de Souza, MS, DORL, DNB, FACS, FRCS (England) FRCS (Ireland) Fellow of the American Neurotologic Society, is a man with a passionate mission – to restore hearing irrespective of the economic background of the patient. Dr Christopher de Souza is a world-renowned ENT surgeon who is deeply respected for the vast body that he has carried out related to hearing disorders. With this noble objective in mind, Dr. Chris, as he is popularly known, invited Gurudeva Sri Sri Ravishankar to inaugurate the cochlear implantable hearing device program at Lilavati Hospital, Bandra (West), Mumbai on Saturday, 25th February 2023. The invitation was readily and happily accepted by the Gurudeva who, during the inauguration, praised Dr. Chris’ efforts to restore hearing in poor, marginalized children.
During the glittering inauguration ceremony, several young children who were implanted by Dr. Chris gave eloquent and moving testimonies about how their cochlear implants enabled them to hear and transformed their lives. A young lady who was completely blind and also suffering from severe deafness in both ears also gave her testimony. She was about to lose her job when her hearing disability worsened. Her hearing was restored through a cochlear implant and she retained her job. She thanked Dr. Chris profusely for saving her hearing and her job. The audience was profoundly moved and appreciative of the efforts of Dr.Chris and Gurudeva Sri Sri Ravishankar to restore hearing in marginalized children.
During his talk, the Gurudeva said,“Doctors are the embodiment of divinity” as they protect life. The Lilavati Centre for Speech and Hearing was “a gift to our society.” He also said that the best worship is spreading happiness. There are two aspects to happiness – physical and spiritual well-being. Both are needed to spread happiness.
Four out of a hundred children are born with hearing loss. There is an urgent need to address this issue. The individual gets a new lease of life when they can hear with the help of cochlear implants. Experts like Dr Christopher de Souza say that it is best to operate on the child by the age of 2 in order for the child to hear, acquire speech and language and develop like a normal child. Hence Lilavati Hospital has state-of-the-art equipment that facilitates the very accurate evaluation of the hearing of newborn children and adults.
The cochlear implant program at Lilavati Hospital is run by Dr Christopher de Souza with his team and is open to everyone. Each cochlear implant costs between Rs. 7 lakhs to Rs. 17 lakhs. Generous donors are sought for the implants. Lilavati Hospital will be providing post-operational care to the underprivileged at a subsidized rate. Donors’ cheques may be made out in the name of Lilavati Hospital and Research Center accompanied by a Direction Letter specifying that the donation is for the Cochlear Implant program.
