A Dunblane teenager who went deaf in his right ear after emergency surgery to save his life has become the first person in Scotland to get a revolutionary hearing implant.
Ross Paterson suffered from constant ear infections and was referred to an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist in 2020.
It was at that stage he discovered he had a cholesteatoma – an abnormal collection of skin cells deep inside the ear – which is rare but if left untreated leads to serious life-threatening complications such as meningitis.
The devastating impact was making life debilitating for the teen, who said he was pulling away from social situations as interaction became tarnished with his friends due to lack of hearing.
The now 15-year-old hopes his new hearing implant will be a game changer.
Ross’ dad, John, said: “Ross has been incredible in dealing with it all and has been really brave. He had to have the initial operation which resulted in hearing loss as we were told the cholesteatoma could perforate his membrane and cause meningitis and we could have lost him.
“He had to have the operation to remove it or he wouldn’t have survived. He was really unlucky to lose his hearing during the operation but this has been a silver lining. It’s amazing technology and a radical new approach.”
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After he lost his hearing, Ross was referred from Forth Valley to Mr Arun Iyer, the ENT clinical lead at University Hospital Monklands, Lanarkshire, who specialises in hearing implants.
The teenager was offered a ground-breaking Cochlear Osia system which uses a special type of implant that goes underneath the skin. All you put on top is a magnetic microphone that sends a signal to the piezo-electric implant under the skin which vibrates and creates the vibration through the skull to pass the sound to his good ear.
Ross was fitted with the implant in April. He said: “My hearing growing up was fine but then I had quite a lot of ear infections. Once I lost the hearing in my right ear after the operation it was a bit of a shock and quite difficult but I just got on with things and tried to stay positive as opposed to trying to change things that can’t be changed and I still had one good ear.
“I was pulling away from social situations as it was difficult to hear my friends and I was getting tired at the end of each day. It’s much better now. I can be in bigger groups and hear conversations really well.
“I like to participate in PE as much as possible, go to the gym, do fencing and I’m in the choir. This device helps me do all these sociable things.
“I can physically feel it under the skin, but you can’t really see it, so it doesn’t really bother me. It was pretty sore the first couple of days after the operation. I needed to wait for the swelling to go down and the scar is healing but I’m now pretty much back to normal everyday life.”
Mr Iyer hopes others will be able to benefit from this technology. He said: “It’s a great honour to be able to help this young man to be able to hear and have a normal life which is fantastic.
“It can be debilitating in the classroom and in social circumstances for young people with hearing loss. There is also nothing visible outside the head as the implant goes underneath the skin. Ross can simply take the new technology on and off depending on when he needs it.
“This advancement of technology will be life-changing for a select group of people who are unable to wear a normal hearing aid.”
