Rosey (third left) presents a mock cheque of RM40,000 to Yalizawati.
MIRI (May 7): The Sarawak government, the private sector and NGOs will be helping Dayang Irdina Awang Ahmad Tarmizi, 4, from Bintulu to undergo a life-changing cochlea implant at Borneo Medical Centre here tomorrow.
The Ministry of Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development, Borneo Medical Centre Miri, Sarawak Hearing and Aural Rehabilitation Society (Sarawak Hears) and device supplier Hearing Concept are helping to connect her to the hearing world through listening and spoken language.
Dayang Irdina was diagnosed with profound hearing loss in both ears at Miri Hospital in November 2021, but has limited access to speech sounds and response to loud sounds despite having been fitted with superpower hearing aids a month later.
Deputy Minister of Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Datuk Rosey Yunus said her ministry is providing funds to help the community as it cannot function alone.
“We are indeed blessed with organisations that share the same belief with us,” she said during the presentation of RM40,000-cheque to the girl’s parents at BMC yesterday.
BMC is donating RM30,000 and subsidies and a special price offer by implant supplier Hearing Concept to bring the cost down to RM110,000.
Rosey said the cost of a bilateral device alone is RM80,000 instead of the normal price of RM150,000 for both ears while the cost of surgery is about RM30,000.
Housewife Yalizawati Maon and her husband Awang Ahmad Tarmizi thanked the state government, BMC, doctors and everyone involved in this undertaking.
Rosey, meanwhile, hoped this pioneering implant surgery at BMC Miri would attract more medical tourists to Miri.
BMC Miri chairman Dr Mathew Kho said it is the only member of Malaysian Health Travel Council in northern Sarawak which allows a hassle-free medical tourism pathway for all foreign patients.
He said the first cochlear implant surgery at BMC Miri will be performed by Professor Dr Tang Ing Ping and Dr Doris Jong as their way of giving back to the society and bring a big difference to Dayang Irdina’s life .
According to Dr Tang, who is Hears president and Ear, Nose and Throat consultant at Unimas, there are 40 to 50 patients in the state needing cochlea implant aid.
Dr Jong who is BMC Miri Resident ENT and head of Head, Neck and Shoulder surgery, said five cochlea implant surgeries and one auditory brainstem surgery had been performed at Miri Hospital since 2014 .
Dayang Irdina’s operation Saturday would be the first one performed by a private medical centre.
Dr Jong, Miri Hospital director Dr Jack Wong, Dr Tang and Hears under the presidency of Datuk Sebastian Ting started the cochlea implant programme for northern Sarawak in 2014.