Former high-flying TV presenter Louis Otieno has finally broken the silence on his long illness, which has left him deaf. Louis, who has been in and out of hospital, has been suffering from acute pancreatitis.
This is the sudden inflammation of the pancreas that may be mild or life threatening but usually subsides. Gallstones and alcohol abuse are the main causes of acute pancreatitis. Severe abdominal pain is the predominant symptom. [Watch video below]
Louis Otieno will be featured tonight on KTN Prime, where he talks about his illness and what he has been up to. In an interview with KTN health reporter Mercy Korir, Louis, who has sent out an appeal for for financial help, says he woke up one day while in hospital and found he had lost his sense of hearing.
“One morning, “he says, reading the question written by mercy on a white plain paper, “I wake up, and I can’t heat the nurse. Just like that. Coward friends changed. They changed….because I looked for them and I can find them. I can’t hear my daughter.”
BELOW IS A SNEAK PREVIEW OF THE INTERVIEW
The Louis Otieno Medical Fund was launched on Friday last week by a committee formed to raise funds to help offset medical bills. “Efforts to get his hearing fixed including using hearing aids have not been successful,” it said. “During this period, he has not been able to engage in any gainful income generating activities which has been strenuous for him and family.”
The only way his hearing can be fixed is by having a procedure undertaken in India called Cochlear implant. A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing in both ears; as of 2014 they had been used experimentally in some people who had acquired deafness in one ear after learning how to speak.
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Cochlear implants bypass the normal hearing process; they have a sound processor that resides on the outside of the skin (and generally worn behind the ear) which contains microphones, electronics, battery, and a coil which transmits a signal to the implant. The implant has a coil to receive signals, electronics, and an array of electrodes which is placed into the cochlea, which stimulate the cochlear nerve.
“The cost of this very needed surgery is quite high and hence our reaching out to friends, well-wishers, former peers and anyone who feels moved to support this man get his life back again,” the committee says.
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