Lowell boy's 'bionic ear' gift spurs insurance bill by Acton rep
By Keith Howard, Lowell Sun 11/17/2007

BOSTON -- About one year ago, the only thing Troy Nguyen would say to his school secretary was the word "fish."  Now, with the help of a new hearing device, a formerly shy young boy has turned into a chatterbox.  Nguyen, an 8-year-old from Lowell, was born almost totally deaf and used a clunky hearing aid that kept him from playing sports and hanging out with kids his age. 

Last year, just two weeks before Christmas, Nguyen got the gift of a lifetime, a cochlear implant from the Boston-based Gift of Hearing Foundation.  Now he likes to talk about the Red Sox, the Patriots, and was excited about his ninja costume this Halloween.  "His vocabulary improves every day," said Nicole Leitow, his teacher at the S. Christa McAuliffe Elementary School. "He's very much getting (socially) what he's supposed to be getting."

Now, state Rep. James B. Eldridge, D-Acton, has filed a bill that would increase the amount of health-insurance coverage for children in need of cochlear implants. If passed, operational costs, post treatment services and the $60,000 device would all be covered by Massachusetts Medicaid. The cochlear implant for Nguyen, also know as a "bionic ear," is a surgical treatment for hearing loss that works like an artificial human cochlea in the inner ear, increasing the signal from the ear to the brain. It is different from a hearing aid, which simply amplifies sound. "Any child born into poverty is effectively prohibited from getting this service," said Eldridge, a board member who joined The Gift of Hearing Foundation two years ago. Hundreds of hearing-impaired or deaf people would benefit from this service.

Eileen Jones, the foundation's founder who lost her hearing at the age of 45, described being deaf as living in a glass box, able to see the world happening, but unable to participate in the things around her. "The implant basically gave me my life back when I lost my hearing as an adult," she said. "The most important thing to me was human interaction. Being a part of my family and community."