Fintan Ramblings

Should CI companies be allowed to put pressure on deaf people that they must wear CI implants?

I got talking to one member of Deaf UK Chat on MSN.

It all started when she wanted help in setting up a website she was doing for a hobby.

Knowing I co-run the forum with Tony, she asked if I could post about CI, as she was a little shy. She knew I was anti implanting CI against children’s will, and hate companies that give deaf people half-truths!

First of all she contacted the RNID (Royal National Institute for Deaf ) who were only interested in giving her charity tickets and donating to them which is not surprising really!

She wanted more information, the doctor gave her very few leaflets and a search on Google gave her few results (it’s mostly children with CI)

Although I was born deaf, I am not a CI user, so I am not the best person to ask.

I posted on Deaf UK chat.

We are a levelheaded bunch, and another member helpfully posted a link to a CI forum .. I did not ask what information they give her so she went to doctor armed with more questions.

Not surprisingly she found it hard to understand them. They did not offer to write all this down and make sure she understood it all.

I can understand why people who lost their hearing later on in life want to do anything to try and get it back; she is an adult, she can make her own mind up.

What she hadn’t bargained for was the constant persistence that she must wear CI

She got various letters, and representative came knocking at her house trying to persuade her.

She was offered a holiday to meet other CI user and she was paired with (her words) an articulate CI user and a really thick deaf person.

She suspected he had other problems let alone just being deaf

A good ploy don’t you think after all most people believe that without hearing you cannot be educated, hence why they want a mass implantation on children.

I hadn’t seen her for a while and was worried about her, when I caught her online she was suffering from depression.

Understandable really when your divorced, children to bring up and her dad had just died.

But she said it’s the relentless persuasion by this company, she told them that she could not afford this and needed money to travel all the way to Ivory Coast for a funeral hoping that they will go away.

Sadly she never got to see her dad get buried…

What she hadn’t bargained for was that they came back with grants from the council for her to sign even a social worker was present.

Don’t worry your local council will pay for CI and all you need to do is sign on the dotted line.

What horrible pressure, I even offered to drive all the way there and film this and give them a piece of my mind.

She took my advice and went to Citizens Advice Bureau or a solicitor (cant remember) which and I am happy to say has put all the persistence to a stop.

In my opinion the best people to ask is other late deafened people. The doctor should have offered her counselling …

…and when she decided against having a CI they should have let her be…

P.S I know the picture is Homer Simpson brain but it doesn’t half look like a CI doesn’t it?