Who's Thanaa Moolla?

Thanaa Moolla is a 3 year old girl who was diagnosed of having profound hearing loss in both her ears. The diagnosis was confirmed in February 2007 by an audiologist Shameem Ebrahim who is based at the Donald Gordon Institute in Johannesburg South Africa.

After having taken some time to absorb the unfortunate news of Thanaa's dis ability we began to research our options for Thanaa. We met again with Shameem Ebrahim who gave us the various types of options. The cochlear implant operation was an option but Thanaa had to become a candidate for a cochlear implant operation.

To become a candidate Thanaa had to be put on to hearing aids for a period of 6 months to make sure that hearing aids will not be her answer to hearing again. Once it was confirmed that Thanaa was not receiving any sound through hearing aids she had to undergo various different types of test such as Cat & Mri scans to ensure there was no damage to her acoustic nerve which is A cranial nerve concerned with hearing, balance and head position. The acoustic nerve is the 8th cranial nerve. It branches into two parts - a cochlear part integral to hearing and a vestibular part which mediates the sense of balance and head position. Also called the vestibulocochlear nerve.

Thanaa was then introduced to an amazing speech therapist “Estelle Robert” who is the head of the speech department at the Centre for the Hearing & Speech Impaired. The centre based in Parktown is affiliated to Wits University . Estelle worked with Thanaa for a while before she was convinced that Thanaa will benefit from the cochlear implant operation.

It was now the time to meet with the magician Dr. Maurice Hockman who is Thanaa's surgeon and the man responsible for many cochlear implant operations done in Johannesburg . After our consult with Dr Hockman a date was set for the operation.

Thanaa did not make life easy for us as her 1 st attempt of the operation was cancelled due to an ear infection; her 2 nd attempt was also cancelled because she picked up flu. On the 3 rd attempt the operation was performed and after six tormenting hours we had the glimpse of out precious daughter followed by Dr Hockman who confirmed that the operation was a success and that the device was implanted.

After 3 weeks of recovery for Thanaa she was taken back to Shameem for the switch on of the device. It was an extremely emotional time for all of us as we saw Thanaa hear for the first time. She had a look of confusion yet welcomed this new sensation that she was experiencing.

Since her first operation Thanaa has developed in leap and bounds as she began to react to sound and is also starting to talk. Thanaa is currently enrolled at the Centre for the Speech & Hearing Impaired children and is doing extremely well.