Bob and Janette Cantwell and their daughter Megan are a Dallas Cochlear Implant Program family. Below they offer comments on the family journey...so far.

An Interview with the Cantwells
What were your feelings when you discovered Megan was deaf?

Megan passed an ABR at birth with normal hearing and soon began responding to our voices and environmental sounds. About six months later I noticed that Megan quit responding to our voices, she quit requesting that we turn on her mobile, and she quit the babbling she’d recently begun. I knew she wasn’t hearing even though friends and family insisted her hearing was fine.

Megan’s pediatrician referred her for a hearing test. Following the test we were told that Megan did not respond to any of the stimuli at any level and that she needed to have an ABR. Megan’s doctor then referred her to Children’s for the ABR. Megan had an ABR when she was eight months old, following which we were told that she had a profound, bilateral, sensorineural hearing loss.

Even though I knew Megan wasn’t hearing, I will never forget the way I felt when those words came out of the ENT’s mouth "…profound, bilateral, sensorineural hearing loss…a loss so severe that she probably won’t receive any benefit from hearing aids". I was completely devastated. My daughter would spend the rest of her life in silence. She would never hear my voice, her father’s voice, her brother’s voice, not even her own children’s voices.

Why did you choose Dr. Bauer?

The ENT went on to tell us about cochlear implants and the possibilities that might exist for Megan. The doctor was so compassionate and patient, she spent what seemed like hours with us. She asked us what we wanted in an otolaryngologist. We told her we wanted someone who was a leading expert in the field of pediatric implants, a doctor who would take his/her time answering our questions and give thorough explanations. She immediately told us about Dr. Bauer. She said he was in the hospital and asked if he would come in and talk with us.

Before Megan woke up from the ABR we were talking with Dr. Bauer. He too was extremely compassionate and patient, he acted as if we were the only people he had to see. He outlined the entire candidacy process for us, gave us a technical overview of the implants and how they worked, and explained the surgery and rehabilitation that would follow. He answered all of our questions with thorough explanations and offered several resources for learning more about cochlear implants. He invited us to contact him as more questions came up. He was always available to talk with us over the phone, via e-mail, or in his office.

We went home and started doing our research. We discovered that Dr. Bauer was on the cutting edge in the field of pediatric implants and the leading expert we wanted working with Megan. Amazingly, Dr. Bauer is every bit as good with children as he is with their parents. Two years after Megan’s first implant Dr. Bauer continues to exhibit a personal interest in Megan. He is always available to answer our questions and has been extremely supportive in helping us obtain the educational assistance Megan requires.

How did you make the decision for implantation?

Children’s hospital referred us to the Callier Center for a hearing aid evaluation. Although we were told it was unlikely that Megan would receive any benefit from hearing aids, she was fitted and we kept them on her every waking moment. Her aided hearing evaluations showed no improvement. Megan’s aided audiogram was still above 90db. We were told that the few responses she did make were to vibration, not sound.

Megan’s only chance to hear was through cochlear implants. We wanted Megan to learn to listen and speak…to lead the most normal life she could. We learned that if Megan was implanted early her chances of developing normal speech patterns were much greater. We also knew that if Megan later choose to assimilate into deaf culture she could remove her implants, but without the implants she would never have the option of hearing.

Megan received a Med-el cochlear implant in her left ear on November 15, 2002, two days after her first birthday. The device was initially stimulated on December 9, 2002. Regrettably at the time Megan was a candidate for implantation children were not being implanted younger than 12 months of age, nor were children being bilaterally implanted.

On September 16, 2003, Megan was re-fitted with a hearing aid on her right ear. Her response to sound with the right ear alone continued to be below the 90db level. While Megan’s speech was rapidly developing with the single implant, she could not localize sound and had difficulty understanding speech in the presence of background noise. Again, we wanted her to have the most normal hearing possible. Megan’s right ear was implanted on November 14, 2003, one day after her second birthday. Megan’s right implant was stimulated on December 5, 2003.

Interview continued here