All Blog Posts – Hearing Help For Africa

Return to Nigeria: Part II

In the fall of 2013, Dr. Green and a few of his staff from Jacksonville Hearing and Balance Institute returned (or went for the first time!) to Nigeria to check up on their patients and train the medial community in Jos. In Part I, Dr. Green explained more about the work his team is doing. In this Q&A post with Dr. Green, learn about the cultural differences his team encountered. Q: What is a major difference, medically, than in the United States? A: There’s a lot of ignorance even within the medical community. For instance, in Nigeria, after you graduate from medical school, you go to a village and provide medical care for a year. You’re fresh out of medical school and doing some fairly advanced types of things, and that’s tough to do. And basically, there’s no medical liability, so people often end up doing things in a way that perhaps isn’t right. Q: What is a major difference, culturally, than in the United States? A: We saw things that most people don’t realize actually happen. We call them these, oh, my, moments. You slap yourself in the face and think, did I really see that? For instance, we were driving from the capitol to Jos and we saw this guy who had just part of a cow hooked on with bungee cords to his motorcycle, including the tail. It’s seems strange, disgusting even, to us, and we think, oh my goodness. But that’s what you see sometimes. Stuff like that. Q: How do you see the communities working together in Nigeria? A: People help each other out there. They don’t save their money for retirement, they don’t put it in the bank; they give it to one another. People go to their friends and raise money for these surgeries. Nigeria is an interesting place; you just don’t know what’s going to happen the next day. But the people are some of the most grateful folks I’ve ever seen, and that’s rewarding. It’s very humbling how grateful they are.

Return to Nigeria: Part I

In the fall of 2013, Dr. Green and a few of his staff from Jacksonville Hearing and Balance Institute returned (or went for the first time!) to Nigeria to check up on their patients and train the medial community in Jos. In these two Q&A posts with Dr. Green, find out about the work conducted during the trip as well as the cultural differences his team encountered. Q: What have you been doing in Nigeria on most of your trips? A: We’ve been seeing potential patients whom we could bring to Florida for surgery; getting the lab established; setting up the Internet and teleconferences; often it’s basic administrative stuff like that. Q: You mentioned the lab. What is involved in setting up the lab? A: Well, the lab is going to be named for Dr. Jack Hough, of Oklahoma City, OK. He was the man responsible for my interest in ear surgery when I first started out. The lab will be named The Jack and Jodie Hough Lab, in Jos, Nigeria, in honor of Jack and his wife. Q: What are your goals for the work you are doing in Nigeria? A: My short-term goal is to teach doctors how to perform procedures. My long-term goals are much deeper: Share the gospel, proclaiming Christ’s name across the nation. Generate government interest in advancing its country’s medical communities. Help the local university develop audiology and speech pathology programs, and later a school of oral auditory education. Q: What are the interests of Nigeria’s medical community? A: Doctors are really interested in cochlear implants. It’s the only sensory apparatus that has the bionic fix to it. It’s been around for 40 years, so the potential of finally having it come to their country is intriguing to them. We’ll support the doctors remotely and by making periodic trips over there. Q: How do you support the doctors remotely? A: We had a Nigerian audiometrician visit our office, as seen in the video post. His name is Ben; he does the troubleshooting for the hearing aids and cochlear implants in Nigeria, working virtually with our audiologists at JHBI. Most of the problems are in the external port (the processor), and those can be worked through remotely.

Update on Samuel Ochenehi from Jos, Nigeria

Samuel is examining a 43 year old retroviral disease patient who was admitted 8 days ago and is being managed for CCF secondary to DCM.　 He is examining her heart listening for heart sounds and murmur. She has a pan-systolic murmur grade II/IV. Photo provided by: Samuel Ochenehi, March 15, 2013. Samuel Ochenehi with a patient

Prevention of Deafness and Hearing Impairment

With primary prevention, early diagnosis and suitable management, a large percentage of cases involving deafness or hearing impairment can be avoided. Early detection and treatment in babies and children can prevent problems with language development and academic progress. Depending on the cause, hearing loss can be treated surgically, medically or with the use of hearing aids or implantable devices.

Social and Economic Burdens of Hearing Impairment

For individuals with hearing impairment, the social and economic burden of care can be heavy on their families, friends and communities. For children, hearing impairment can delay the development of language and cognitive skills, which can hinder progress in school. And for adults, hearing impairment often makes it difficult to obtain and keep jobs. Children and adults with hearing impairment are often socially stigmatized and isolated.

Deafness and Hearing Impairment

In 2004, more than 275 million people around the world had moderate-to-profound hearing hearing impairment. According to the World Health Organization, 80 percent of those people lived in low- and middle-income countries. Hearing impairment refers to the partial and/or complete loss of the ability to hear.

Back to Nigeria

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Prevention of Deafness and Hearing Impairment
Posted on 6th April, by admin in All Blog Posts, Hearing Loss. No Comments

Dr. Green returned to Nigeria in October 2011 to train surgeons, perform ear surgeries and follow up with some of his former patients. He and former missionary Dr. Joel Anthis, of Katy, TX, performed ear surgeries (primarily stapendectomies and tympanoplasties with or without mastoidectomies) in Jos, Nigeria. Dr. Anthis also performed a few non-ear surgeries including endoscopic sinus surgery, laryngoscopy, bronchoscopy and the removal of a foreign body in the lung. Dr. Green and Dr. Anthis performed approximately 13 procedures.