Christmas has definitely arrived early for 3-year old Grayson Clamp who was born without a cochlear nerve, as he is now officially the first child in the U.S. who is walking around with an auditory brain stem implant. In a nutshell, Clamp has been blessed with the ability to hear after the implant, although the surgeon who performed the procedure on him said afterwards, “He’s sound aware, but we don’t know what exactly he hears. We’re relying on the plasticity of brain to start to sort this out.”
Needless to say, Grayson Clamp’s face exhibited a look of surprise that is absolutely priceless, where his mouth opened wide, pointing out to the person right in front of him who was speaking, signalling the first time that he actually heard some sound. A cochlear implant was fitted to Clamp at a young age, but unfortunately, the device did not manage to help him in any way, which is where the auditory brain stem implant came in handy. An external battery will power this brain stem implant, which can be replaced as and when required.
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