People
often ask if it is tough to work for a children’s hospital since I have
to see sick kids every day. And while it is tough at times, last week
is a perfect example of why it is pretty darn good to work here.
First a quick little
background, the mom of a girl, about a year old, had noticed that the
baby wasn’t responding to sounds very much. She took her to her local
doctor, who referred her to a specialist, who in turn referred her to
Packard. It turns out that the baby was nearly 100% deaf in both ears.
The girl then underwent cochlear implant surgery about a month ago, a
surgery that I was able to be in and take pictures of. The surgery was
incredible, imagine the size of a 1-year-old’s ear, they are tiny to
begin with, and the instruments that the doctor used were so small. The
surgery went perfect.
Fast forward a month and
the little girl and her parents were back and ready to have the implants
turned on. I stood in the room with the parents, the little girl and
the doctor as she used a computer to slowly raise the volume. The
little girl was banging some blocks on the desk, the doctor kept raising
the volume ever so slightly, and then all of a sudden the little girl
looked up at her mom and started to cry. She stopped crying and went
back to banging the blocks together, and again got tears in her eyes and
crawled over to dad. This little girl had gone a year without sound.
The little girl was now able to hear.
It
really was a special moment, seeing a little girl hear for the first
time. Seeing the parents call her name and her react brought tears to
their eyes. A smile to the doctor’s face. These are the reasons that
make it easy to work at a children’s hospital.
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