Qatari doctors carry out cochlear implants for children in Gaza

Qatari doctors have carried out 18 cochlear implants for deaf Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip over the past week, Anadolu reported on Monday.

According to Dr Khalid Abdul Hadi, the head of the Hearing and Balance Department at Hamad Medical City in Qatar, four more operations will be performed in the next few days. “We carry out four implants every day,” he told a press conference. “We are also looking at a programme to train Palestinian doctors how to perform this operation.”

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His colleague Dr Abdul Salam Al-Qahtani confirmed that Hamad Medical City is planning to offer a training opportunity for Palestinian doctors in Gaza for such operations in the future. He noted that the Palestinian doctors, who followed the operations closely, will be qualified to carry them out themselves soon.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that this is the first time that cochlear implant operations have been performed in Gaza. They took place in two operating theatres equipped for the purpose at Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip.

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More than 2,400 adults in the enclave need cochlear implants; there are also 1,252 children waiting for the operation.