STORY OF INAYATH KHAN

Inayath – one of the sweetest kids, we have met suffers from hearing loss. The story started in 2020 when Inayath was 3 years old. Inayath khan was unable to hear and speak as normal children do and that raised concern in his parents mind.

Inayath Khan was the first child of parents Mohammed Akram Pasha and Asiya Begum. He was born on the 13th of March, 2017 in Kadlakal, Medak, Hyderabad City. They were happy and as time passed everything seemed fine and they had their second son too. But their merriness was shattered when they suspected out that  Inayath had abnormalities if compared to his peers. 

On interviewing Aiysha Begum, she said “Those were sleepless nights for me then and that’s when they decided to go to hospitals for consultations. There when Inayath was a year and a half, he suffered from a high fever and the doctor raised a concern that the child was unable to hear, so there must be a problem. Within a few months, we ourselves waited but nothing positive could come out. We then went to Nilofer Hospital, where Mr. Raghu told us about Meenakshi Venkatraman Foundation (MVF). He stated that they give free hearing aids as well as do free hearing testing for hearing impaired children. That’s when we went to Gandhi hospital for a regular check-up with the pediatrician. Then when we asked for a solution for our child’s problem, they sent us to the MVF facility for the audiological evaluation of OAE and BSERA. There we met Audiologist Ms.Saipriya and Ms. Merlyn and shared our problem with them.

They did ask us questions, about the family history and marriage history. On answering that our marital history is consanguineous marriage positive with no significant indication in perinatal and postnatal history. Prenatal history is normal. Though our child’s developmental history is normal, our child’s speech was not age-appropriate. Thereafter, the audiologists recommended us for OAE and BSERA.

The results of the tests were out and it stated the following:-

OAE: Bilateral overall reduced hair cell functioning.

BSERA: Bilateral severe to profound hearing loss.

The Audiologist explained the results and recommended us for using the hearing aids on a regular basis. They also suggested attending the therapy sessions at Gandhi for the speech and hearing development of our child. There, we were introduced to Mrs. Swapna Jadhav – the therapy class mentor.

Since then, we started our journey with MVF, and still, it is going strong. This one and a half years have been so fruitful since his speech levels have improved and he started listening through the hearing aids with regular therapy sessions. A special thanks to Swapna Mam who trained our kid as well as us on improving our child’s hearing and speech abilities according to his age appropriately.

Inayath got his hearing aids first in 2019 and second one in March 2021. Since his second one got fitted, his improvement is substantial. Though, he is merely recognizing things, his rate of listening and responses have improved to its very best.

We were grateful to Mr. Raghu to have told us about MVF as well as Mr. Ranganathan, Mr.Keerthiraj – who are a part of MVF. It’s a beautiful cause that they are helping so many small children and people with less income and provide them with hearing aids and also give free services to all those in need. Last but not the least, the founder of MVF Mr. Sethuramangaaru for helping to get more confidence and hope in our child. Hope things go positive and well-conditioned in his life. Thank you.” – Asiya Begum and Md.Akram Pasha