News, Bulletins and Updates

Keyboard provided by NUH charity is put to good use

The Nottingham Cochlear Implant Programme are delighted to have received a keyboard which has been kindly provided by the Nottingham University Hospitals Charity.

Cochlear implants provide some sensation of hearing to people who are severely or profoundly deaf. Implant users generally hear and understand speech much more easily with their implants. They very often struggle to enjoy music however, reporting it as sounding “distorted”, “unpleasant”, or “not how I remember it”.

We’ll be using the keyboard to help patients to understand how music works with their implants, and hopefully to find styles or pitches of music which sound acceptable. From there they can then progress to listening to more complicated music involving other instruments and vocals, and hopefully learn to enjoy music once again.

As you can see the keyboard has already been used in one of our rehabilitation groups, and it will get much more use in the coming months, so a big thank you to the Charity and to everyone who has worked hard to raise funds!

February 2012:Update on the recall of cochlear implant device (Nucleus 5)

Update on the Nucleus CI500 series implant recall

As you may be aware from our previous website entry or from other sources, Cochlear Ltd withdrew (recalled) their latest implant, the CI512, from the market back in September 2011. We have recently received further information from Cochlear regarding the incidents of implant failures with the CI512 cochlear implant and about its cause. Investigations are still continuing and therefore this information may change.

Since the recall was announced, at NCIP we returned to use of the Freedom implant (the most recent predecessor) that houses the same technology as the CI500 series. The Freedom is slightly thicker than the CI512, but otherwise is very similar. Cochlear has also informed us that this device has become even more reliable, through a number of developments, since its original release.

What is the cause?

It appears that in some of these implants, there was a slight variation in the quality of the seal that joins the main implant body to the electrode array which has led to minute cracks forming. These cracks then allowed water molecules to enter the device and interfere with the sensitive electronic components inside the implant. This in turn could cause intermittency and eventually device failure.

How often are these implants failing?

As of this January, according to Cochlear, the failure rate of the CI500 series implant is 2.4%. The average time for one of these implants to fail after implantation is 7 months.  Encouragingly, the number of devices that are failing has steadily decreased since Autumn 2011.

To date, the Nottingham Programme has had two CI512 implant failures out of over 200 operations with this device. 

What to do if you are concerned

The guidelines remain the same. If you or your child reports any intermittency with the device, it is important that you first follow the usual troubleshooting advice. This is because, more often than not; it will be a problem with the external equipment, eg headpiece, cable or speech processor rather than the implant.

For troubleshooting advice click here

If you remain concerned, please contact us and we will be happy to advise you.

The Nottingham Cochlear Implant Team

UK Letter to CI500 series recipients.pdf

Laura Ainsworth moves to pastures new

Laura, the Teams Associate Audiologist has recently left us to venture into new territory by joining the charity Action on Hearing Loss. She will developing community support for patients in the Nottingham area who have recently been fitted with hearing aids and offer advice on how to get the most benefit from their hearing aids and other assistive listening devices.  Laura was an invaluable part of the Team and she will be missed. We wish her all the very best in her new job.

Patient experience at the Nottingham Theatre Royal

Have you been to the theatre since you had your cochlear implant? 

Did you know that many theatres, including the Royal Centre in Nottingham, have captioned and BSL interpreted performances of their shows – and as a deaf person you can get half price seats? One of our adult implantees recently went to a captioned performance for the first time and this is how she found the experience:

“Having had a cochlear implant fitted I still struggled watching TV and used subtitles, so was very nervous about going to theatre, something as a hearing person I use to love doing many years ago.  Helen Starczewski a speech and language therapist at Nottingham, suggested I go to Royal Centre in Nottingham as they do captioned performances.  I didn’t know what a captioned performance was?  She informed me it was a screen which displayed the words, just like subtitles on TV and gave me the e-mail details of the lady who I could get in touch with to book tickets or ask any questions to.   My husband and I decided to give it a go, and I got in touch with a lady called Emily to book tickets.  Emily was great and very helpful.  She informed me tickets were half price, plus if we paid an extra £1 each we could get tram tickets for the day.  It seemed like a really good idea, being 2 hours away, we parked in the park and ride, and then catch the tram into town.  If we paid by card there was a 3% booking fee charge or if paid by cheque there was no extra charge.  We paid by cheque and once payment was cleared the tickets was posted to our house.  As it was Christmas time and I was a bit worried about my cheque getting there, I asked Emily to confirm she had received the cheque for my peace of mind.  She e-mailed me the next day to say my cheque had arrived, and then a few days later she e-mailed to say she had posted the tickets to me.  I got excited when I saw the tickets for Hairspray.  Michael Starke (Sinbad in Brookside) played Edna Turnblad and Micky Dolenz (from the Monkees) played Wilbur Turnblad.  Both my husband and I had a fabulous time, all the staff that we met were very friendly and helpful and looked at us when they spoke.  Our seats were in a dress circle, so we looked slightly down to the stage but we were so close to the stage and saw everything.  In the dress circle opposite us was an electronic board which showed who was talking and what they was saying, just like subtitles.

We also learnt that assistance dogs are welcome in the building and bowls of water are offered.  They also have a dog sitting or walking service during a performance.  They also do audio described performances for blind or partially sighted people and offer a touch tour before the performance.  They also do sign language interpreted performances, unfortunately my sign language isn’t strong enough for this.  I would advise informing the Royal Centre if any of these are needed when booking tickets, personally I didn’t use them.  I was amazed at the amount they do, we have nothing like this where we live.

We have already booked to see our next show, Legally Blonde, I’m looking forward to it already but I have a few months to wait yet.  There are various captioned shows before this, but unfortunately they weren’t our taste.  The amount of different shows they show captioned is very varied, so there is something for everyone, I would definitely advise anyone thinking of going, to go.

I’d like to thank Helen for her fantastic suggestion and also Emily for her helpful and friendly service.  Both of which have made me going to theatre very enjoyable.”

If you would like further information on captioned or BSL interpreted performances at the Royal Centre, Nottingham, please contact:

Emily Noakes  Tel: 0115 9895609  Email: emily.noakes@nottinghamcity.gov.uk