I am Dr. Shripal S Jain. I am a dentist by profession and my wife Dr. Bharti S Jain, a family physician. Rujal Jain is our first born child. When Rujal was born everything was normal (birth cry) and he was a healthy child. But at the age of 6 months we had a doubt regarding his hearing ability and so we consulted an ENT doctor in Panvel and he referred us for BERA test. We did the BERA test on 01/01/2009. BERA reports confirmed our worst fears. Rujal had bilateral sensorineural loss upto 120db. We consulted Dr. Kirtane for the same. He explained everything about Rujal’s problem and referred us to Hinduja hospital for CT scan and MRI and advised us to start with speech therapy with hearing aids. After 6 months of speech therapy with hearing aids the results were not very satisfactory and hence we decided for cochlear implants.

The 1st cochlear implant was done at the age of 19 months and the 2nd at the age of 40 months. After doing the 1st implant and 6 months of speech therapy Rujal could speak words like ma, pa, doctor, sorry etc. And within a year of the therapy he was able to form phrases.

I again consulted Dr. Kirtane and cochlear team for bilateral implant, and life changed drastically after that. And today my son Rujal Jain who is 8 yrs old is not only completely normal in all aspects of life, but also attends the school (Good Shepherd Convent School) for normal children, is an academic rankholder and plays cricket with leather ball since the age of 5 yrs. Also last month he smashed Brett Lee for a boundary during a friendly match at Bombay Gymkhana. Even Brett Lee was surprised to see the passion that Rujal has for cricket.

I am so thankful to everyone involved with his treatment and therapy throughout. Along with the cochlear implants, the constant efforts, support and motivation from the parents, the family, Dr. Kirtane, Ms. Geetanjali (concerned therapist) and the entire cochlear team even a differently abled child can do wonders and my child Rujal is an excellent example of the same.