BY NOOR SYAHHIRA HADY & MEDECCI LINEIL
KUCHING: Christmas came early for a 27-year-old lady as her auditory brainstem implant was switched on today (Dec 23).
Adelyn Allen Alang from Serian suffers from neurofibromatosis type 2 and has a severe sensorineural hearing loss in both ears.
After waiting for two years, she had successfully undergone an auditory brainstem implant which cost RM85,000 at the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH). The cost of the implant was fully covered by the state government.
According to Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah, the switching on was significant as it will be the best Christmas gift for her.
“As Christmas is about hope, sharing, and rejoicing, this ‘switching on’ will give her hope for a better life,” she said.
She said this during a press conference after visiting Adelyn at SGH yesterday (Dec 23).
Explaining the assistance, Fatimah stated that the aid for the implant was channeled through an allocation provided by the Sarawak government to finance the health treatment of the people of this state, especially the less fortunate.
“The Medical Assistance Committee will make an assessment before the donation is distributed to the patient. It is different from the aid given for kidney patients.
“Therefore, today we can see one of the patients whom the committee panel has chosen to finance the cost of her surgery.
“In Adelyn’s case, she applied for help through Sarawak’s Hearing and Aural Rehabilitation (HEAR) Society when she was 25 years old and has now successfully undergone surgery,” she said.
Fatimah also disclosed that thus far, the state government has helped finance a total of seven patients from Sarawak HEAR which amounted to RM620,000 since 2021.
“It involves patients from Sarikei, Mukah, Kuching, Serian, Miri at a cost of RM450,000 in 2021, while this year’s assistance of RM195,000 is for patients from Bintulu and Kuching.
“All these efforts are to ensure that our patients are able to hear and speak fluently like normal people even though the recovery process takes more than a year,” she said.
During the same visit, Fatimah also handed over 20 link chairs (three seaters) and two computer sets to SGH which was donated by 38 Yayasan Pencinta Amal Sebanyak.
