The mother of the child thanked the Qatari medical delegation for helping her son.

A Palestinian child who suffered from 90% loss of hearing uttered his first words after a successful cochlear implantation by Hamad hospital’s hearing department in Gaza. 

Mustafa’s journey to overcome his hearing disability began when his mother noticed his lack of response to sounds when he was around 4 months old. Concerned, she took him to see a doctor who discovered that the child was born with a detectable level of hearing loss.

“We started the journey by putting on a regular stethoscope for six months to see how my child will respond to it and after the evaluation, the department specialist and doctors decided to perform a cochlear implant operation for Mustafa,” she said.

“He was unable to undergo the operation at that time because of some health issues, we spent a whole year in hearing rehabilitation as we remained hopeful.”

The first operation was performed by the Qatari medical delegation in the seventh Al-Hadi Star Regiment in 2019.

The hearing department, funded by the Qatar Development Fund, offered Mustafa access to hearing rehabilitation sessions before and after his cochlear implantation.

Despite the health crisis in Gaza Strip followed by the Covid-19 pandemic, Mustafa’s mother remained adamant on helping her child through the challenges he faced, eventually leading to the first bit of success.

Now, thanks to her advocacy and the medical staff at the Qatari hospital, Mustafa is capable of hearing and interacting with his siblings and peers.

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The mother urged other parents not to be negligent in treating their children and taking care to notice any irregularities from birth. Time is a crucial factor in saving the child from a disability, she said.

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