Just two weeks after 6-year-old Aliah Martinez had cochlear implant surgery, her laughter filled her grandmother’s house like music. With her energy and spirit reverberating through the warm, love-filled home, it would be difficult for one to know she underwent any procedure at all, if not for a 4-centimeter scar behind her right ear.
On Oct. 7, she became the first patient at UTMB Health to receive the world’s newest Cochlear Nucleus Nexa—a “smart” cochlear implant featuring on-board memory and upgradeable firmware. The nearly two-hour surgery, performed by Dr. Yusif Hajiyev, an assistant professor of clinical practice in the Department of Otolaryngology, marked a milestone for UTMB Health and a life-changing moment for Aliah and her family.
Diagnosed last August with single-sided deafness, or unilateral hearing loss/unilateral deafness, Aliah has normal hearing in one ear and severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss in the other. Approximately 3 to 6 percent of school-aged children suffer from unilateral hearing loss according to the American Academy of Audiology.
“Aliah had a regular physical for school and that’s when they figured out that she had something going on with her hearing,” her mother, Ilse Martinez, said. “So, we got her evaluated with Dr. Hajiyev and started working with his office to figure out what was the best option for her and they recommended the cochlear implant.”
In 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved cochlear implantation for single-sided deafness for patients starting from age 5 and with anatomical structures appropriate for the surgery—making Aliah an ideal candidate.
Despite having normal hearing in one ear, single-sided deafness can bring children like her educational, social, and behavioral challenges.
“The puzzle pieces started clicking in when she would come home telling us, ‘My head hurts.’ And for some time, we would talk to her and she wouldn't care,” Ilse Martinez recalled. “It was hard to tell all her teachers, ‘Hey, you know, if she doesn’t listen it’s because she doesn’t hear.’ And she was bilingual at this point and she was struggling, and that’s how we noticed, too.”
Surgery Day
Hajiyev explained that outcomes for cochlear implant surgery improve the sooner the procedure is performed after a patient's initial hearing loss. Aliah's family wasn't sure when she lost the ability to hear in her right ear so when they found out a cochlear implant was an option, they wanted to “get her in there and get it done.”
Fortunately, Hajiyev had a last-minute opening before the end of the year.
Living about an hour away from Galveston, where the surgery was performed at Jennie Sealy Hospital, Ilse Martinez said the night before was restless.
“We really didn't sleep,” Ilse Martinez said. “Just worrying about her, and us making it on time. We had to leave home by 3:30 in the morning and we got to the hospital around 5 a.m.”
When Aliah was taken back, she said the process then went unexpectedly fast but was comfortable with the support of UTMB staff.
“They were great. They were really nice, really patient, and really informative on what they were doing and why they were doing it,” she said. “We had like four or five different people come in there and explain to us what was going on, and that they were going to be in the room and they were going to take care of her and everything.”
The surgery itself was easy, according to Hajiyev, straightforward and without any complications. However, because this part of the brain was silent for what he believes was six years, he said the device is going to take from two to three years for Aliah get used to it and for her hearing to match her other ear’s level. Regardless, her family shared she is already back to her normal girly-girl, Minion-fanatic self.
“She is still Miss Boss and she knows it,” her father, Juan Martinez, said jokingly.
Originally from Azerbaijan—a small country in between Turkey, Iran, and Russia— Hajiyev pioneered and led the first nationwide cochlear implant program, so having yet another “first” under his belt isn’t entirely new, but he’s happy to have made a difference in a young family’s life.
“It’s a very good feeling,” Hajiyev said. “And the most important part is to continue to grow and continue to expand our practice and continue to increase our quality of care.”