Cochlear Implants for 1,000 Children

The Cochlear Implant Center at Tehran’s Loghman Hospital has successfully performed over 1,000 cochlear implant surgeries in the past nine years. The center celebrated its 1,000th such surgery on Wednesday; a surgery that has helped so many deaf children regain their hearing, IRNA reported. The cochlear implant, an electronic medical device that replaces the function of the damaged inner ear, costs as high as $12,000 a piece, said the center’s director, Ali Eftekhari. “But, the Health Ministry imports and offers the device to Loghman Hospital at a much lower price,” he said. The children’s’ families only have to pay 60 million rials ($1,550) for the hearing device, he added.