No More Victims - News Archive

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A U.S. missile strike in Iraq took Mustafa Ghazwan’s hearing nearly two years ago. On Tuesday, far from home, the 3-year-old’s wall of silence finally cracked.

In a University of California, San Francisco conference room, audiologist Colleen Polite switched on an electronic device that had been surgically inserted into Mustafa’s ear weeks ago.

After several tense minutes with no response, Mustafa stopped playing with his puzzle and buried his head in his father’s chest at the sound of Polite’s voice. Moments later, the sound of a clacking toy drew a stare and a frown from the otherwise cheery boy.

“I think he’s off to a fantastic start,” Polite said. “It was almost as if he read a script before he came in today.”

Mustafa was 2 years old and just learning to speak when a missile struck a neighbor’s home and left him deaf in June 2007.

He has not been able to talk since. His father, Ghazwan Al-Nadawi, said his son sometimes bangs his head in frustration over his inability to communicate.

No More Victims, a group that brings war-wounded Iraqi children to the U.S. for treatment, sponsored Mustafa’s trip to San Francisco in December. The next month, UCSF surgeons donating their services inserted a cochlear implant in his right ear.

The implant channels sound past damaged ears and directly into the brain. The device turns sounds transmitted through an external microphone mounted on the ear into electrical impulses that are fired into auditory nerves.

Over time, the area of the brain that manages hearing learns to translate those impulses. While the experience is not the same as normal hearing, patients can understand speech, use the telephone and listen to music, according to doctors.

Mustafa’s device even includes a jack that will allow him to directly connect his implant to an iPod.

Mustafa will need several months of observation to determine what sounds he is and is not hearing so the device can be fine-tuned, Polite said. He and his father, a professor of media studies at Baghdad University, expect to stay in San Francisco as the boy adjusts to the device.

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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Great news for an Iraqi boy who had an operation at UCSF to restore his hearing. Doctors at UCSF just wrapped up his first hearing tests, and they were successful.

For 3-year-old Mustafa Ghazwan, the thrill of being seven floors up at UCSF is all about what he can see.

But in a few minutes, that will change to what he can hear.

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Here’s the rest of the Soapbox Radio interview with Cole Miller.

Cole Miller — Part 2.1: Cole Miller

Cole Miller — Part 2.2: Cole Miller

These interviews constitute the first in a two-part series with Cole Miller and the father of three-year-old Mustafa Ghazwan.

Ghazwan — Part 1.1: Ghazwan

Cole Miller — Part 1.2: Cole Miller

Doctors say that a three-year-old Iraqi boy is on the road to getting his hearing back after undergoing a successful surgery at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.On New Year’s Eve, young Mustafa Ghazwan was flown into San Francisco to receive treatment for his hearing loss after a U.S. missile struck near his home over a year ago.

In front of a large group of reporters, Ghazwan squirmed and sat uncomfortably as he wore a large bandage over his right ear where doctors had inserted a cochlear implant.

Now the next step is the boy’s rehabilitation which is expected to take several months to a year.

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Since then, the world has been a very quiet place for the 3-year-old boy. He has not heard the sounds of the war that has torn apart his country. He has also not heard the voices of his parents, the music from the living room stereo and the sound of the singing toys he was just beginning to play with.

On Friday, in a San Francisco operating room half a world away from the war, he took his first step back from the silence. In a 90-minute operation that was both routine and anything but, surgeons implanted an electronic cochlea inside the boy’s right ear.

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Ghazwan Al-Nadawi hasn’t heard his elder son speak in 19 months, since the day a missile attack in their native Baquba, Iraq, robbed the 3-year-old of his hearing and abruptly halted his nascent speech development.

But thanks to cochlear implant surgery performed on Friday by UCSF ear disorder specialist Lawrence Lustig, MD, the young boy, Mustafa Ghazwan, will soon be making up for lost time.

“He had started saying a few words [before his hearing loss], like ‘mama’ and ‘baba,’ but since then, we have used signs with our hands to communicate,” Al-Nadawi said through an interpreter on Friday, his hands shaking as he waited for Mustafa’s 90-minute surgery to end.

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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A 3-year-old Iraqi boy came to San Francisco for surgery and a new chance at life Friday. He lost his hearing when a U.S. missile struck the house next door, but the boy is now recovering at UCSF.

“This is like a birthday for Mustafa today. He is born again,” said father Ghazwan Al-Nadawi through a translator.

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Tears and smiles marked an emotion-filled moment at Westminster Presbyterian Church, as three-year-old Mustafa Al Nadawi and his 33-year-old father, Ghazwan, walked down the aisle at the conclusion of the church service on Sunday, January 11 to be introduced to the people who helped raise $6,200 to cover Mustafa’s speech therapy following surgery.

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