Ms Deanna Cairns:

My son Billy had a fault in his implant, when it short-circuited just after the implant was fitted. He was left as he was for two years and made no progress and they decided to remove it. I found the hardest decision I had to make was to agree to change the implant, but it was not. His surgery went well and was so much easier than the first time. However, Billy then had to wait from four to five weeks for the swelling to reduce before his implant could be switched on. That was the hardest part. I had to telephone Beaumont after two and a half weeks to plead for it to be switched back on. He went from being a happy child who played with his toys to one who signed to me they were broken and became aggressive. I put him back into preschool, thinking that would improve his behaviour, but the staff were crying and telling me he was a different child and was lashing out at others.

When our children had their first implant, they were profoundly deaf and knew no different. The process was harder on the parents. However, Billy had been profoundly deaf, then had an implant and had hearing, and then his implant was removed. I could not explain that to him. If he was a normal child, I could tell him he could have it back, but it was impossible to explain to him that he had to wait three more weeks. That was the hardest thing for me. If he had had his second ear done, he would not have had to return to silence for that time. We do not realise how much these children rely on their implant until it is taken away. I would not like anybody else to go through what we did.