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4. A team of Doctors examined the baby and opined that the baby was fit to undergo cochlear implant surgery which would help her in better hearing and good speech development and also recommended that the baby should be implanted with a cochlear implant for good future. The Superintendent of the Hospital proposed to perform upon the complainants daughter on 9-7-2005 the Cochlear Implant Surgery and issued estimation certificate for the expenditure involved item wise to the tune of Rs.9,55,500/-. A workshop on Cochlear Implant Surgery was conducted at the Government E.N.T. Hospital, Koti, and Hyderabad on July, 8, 9th & 10th, 2005. ENT surgeons of Apollo Hospital, Madras and foreign delegates participated in the workshop.

It is contended that the service under Central Government Health Scheme to the government servant does not place the complainant in the status of the consumer as she is an employee and the matter is a service matter. It is submitted that the representation made by the complainant for grant of permission for Cochlear implant surgery of her daughter and for grant of medical advance is contrary to the medical attendance rules of the Central Government. It is submitted that a standing committee comprising of experts working in was established to render opinion before performing the Cochlear Implant Surgery and that the complainant got the surgery done upon her daughter based on the opinion of doctors of a hospital where no Cochlear Implant Surgery was done previously.

35. POINT NO.2: The District Forum has referred to the Cochlear implant surgery undergone by the Complainants daughter and the permission obtained by the complainant for the surgery of her daughter as also the nature of the surgery in its discussion under point no.2. The District Forum held that :

A cochlear implant is a medical device that is implanted into the head behind the ear of a deaf person. When used with a microphone and speech processor it electrically stimulates the auditory nerve and results in the person being able to hear sound. When the system was first developed in 1978 by Graeme Clark it was referred to as the bionic ear. Since that time a variety of cochlear implants have been developed by the Cochlear division of Nucleus.
Cochlear implants are designed for use by adults and children who are profoundly or severely deaf and get little or no help from hearing aids.
The cochlear implant is an example of innovations in design, combines with engineering, information processing and software design and development.
What is cochlear implant:
A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted device that helps overcome problems in the inner ear, or cochlea. The cochlea is a snail-shaped, curled tube located in the area of the ear where nerves are contained. Its function is to gather electrical signals from sound vibrations and transmit them to your auditory nerve (or hearing nerve). The hearing nerve then sends these signals to the brain, where they are translated into recognizable sounds.