A friend pointed this article out to me, and of course I had to pass it on.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/11/05/cochlear-implant-celebrates-30th-anniversary/
The part of the article that surprised me was this. "Weber said about 52,000 Americans have been implanted, but the number of
Americans who can actually benefit from an implant is around 1 million."
Had Audrena's left side implant not been delayed, she would have been somewhere between Boys Town's 495-499th implant. But there are 1 million other Americans who could benefit from a cochlear implant. Now, that's not to say that all of those 1 million people should be implanted. We all know that, for various cultural and lifestyle reasons, they're not for everyone. The statistic amazed me, though. 52,000 is such a small number in comparison to 1 million, and it's a small number over a 30 year time frame!
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