The Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Department of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) has performed cochlear implant surgeries on five patients aged between seven months and 20 years, with the entire cost covered by Qatar Charity Ghana in what marks a significant milestone for hearing healthcare in the country.
The surgeries, conducted last week, were led by Professor Abdulkareem K. Al-Balasi, a senior ENT and cochlear implant consultant at the Faculty of Medicine, Dhamar University, Yemen, who was brought into the country specifically for the procedures. He worked alongside a multidisciplinary team from KBTH comprising otologists, audiologists, speech and language therapists, ENT and theatre nurses, and an anaesthetic team.
Cochlear implantation is an electronic surgical procedure that bypasses damaged parts of the inner ear to restore sound perception in individuals with severe-to-profound hearing loss. Each procedure, including the device and all associated costs, would normally amount to approximately $22,000 per ear. All five beneficiaries are from Tamale and would otherwise have been unable to afford the intervention.
Briefing journalists after one of the surgeries, the chief audiologist at KBTH’s Hearing Assessment Centre, Jemima Fynn, warned that hearing loss in children carries consequences that extend far beyond the physical. Left unaddressed, she said, it prevents children from developing language, advancing psychologically and socially, and becoming economically productive members of society.
She noted that Ghana’s lack of early hearing screening equipment means most cases are flagged by parents rather than through clinical detection, resulting in children arriving for intervention as late as three or four years old. “By the time they come, they have already lost a lot of time and the impact is always very severe,” she said.
Cochlear implantation in Ghana began in 2021, and KBTH currently has about 22 patients on record. Fynn noted that patients have largely had to fund the procedure themselves, making the Qatar Charity sponsorship particularly significant.
Health Project Coordinator of Qatar Charity Ghana, Dr Abubakar Inusah Hudu, said the organisation has also backed heart and eye screening programmes, as well as cataract surgeries for approximately 100 patients at Madina Polyclinic. He said the interventions are rooted in an Islamic obligation to support the vulnerable.
Professor Al-Balasi noted that one month after surgery, an audiologist will activate the implanted device. He stressed that rehabilitation involving regular therapy sessions with both speech and language therapists and audiologists is critical during that period to maximise the benefit of the implant.
