By Noimot Olayiwola
The head and neck surgery section of the Audiology Department (Otorhino Laryngology) at the Rumailah Hospital now boasts of the first and only Qatari audiology surgeon.
Consultant Dr Abdul Salam al-Qahtani was the sole surgeon who performed surgeries on five Palestinian children recently and dozens of other children in the past.
Up to 25 other patients from Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, India, Sudan and Morrocco are on the waiting list for the operation.
Dr al-Qahtani became a qualified physician from Cairo University in 1994 after which he trained at Hamad Medical Corporation under the Arab Board in Otorhino Laryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (ORL-HNS) in 2000 and became a full consultant in 2004.
He was one of the foundation doctors who established the Qatari Cochlear Implant Programme (QCIP) at the ORL-HNS section some five years ago. The QCIP involves a multi-disciplinary approach including the radiology, cochlear implant surgery, psychology, social work and speech therapy.
“Two years ago, the section was depending on visiting consultants from Germany for CI surgeries and Dr al-Qahtani used to be under their supervision but he is now fully independent and since then he has been conducting the operations alone.
The QCIP attends to patients under the hearing screening programme to detect the deafness in children within the first few weeks of life.
It also accepts referral cases as well as treating children and adults by CI after an audiological and radiology assessment, which usually takes place for between 2-3 months to be 100% sure whether the patients will require CI or only hearing aid.
CI is a small electronic device that is surgically implanted in the inner ear and activiated by another device worn outside the ear to stimulate the nerve by replacing the damaged or missing hair cells with electrodes while the hearing aid simply amplifies the sound.
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