Cold Case Episode

Cochlear Implant

(If you want, click the link for more information about CIs)

Andy in C Minor.

My take on the show:

I kind of thought it was Andy's best friend all along.

I liked the part when Andy says "I hear with my eyes."

I totally understand that being deaf, one is more "visual". They have a visual language.

For those of you who didn't know what the detective signed to Andy's friend (forgot his name) that made him say, "Your signing sucks." The detective fingerspelled his partner's (Jeff) name as "J-E-H-H". LOL. Cute.

A couple of facts:

When a deaf person is prelingual, meaning they had hearing and developed the spoken language before becoming deaf, he/she is a good candidate for a CI (cochlear implant).

When one is born deaf, it is best to get a CI before the age of five, in order to develop language skills. A deaf person who is deaf all his/her life has a harder to understand sounds. Some really have to work hard to discriminate sounds. Some only can understand environmental sounds and not understand voices.

Also, the sooner one loses hearing and gets a CI, the better. It doesn't take as long to hear "normally" again.

What I didn't like was the time frame of the CI in the show. After the CI surgery, activation (turning on the CI) takes place, on average, a month later. Some do get activated within ten days or so, but most don't till at least four weeks after a CI surgery. It takes time to understand sounds again. Upon activation, sounds are chimpmunky, Micky Mousey, and Daffy Ducky. High pitched-until you get used to the sounds.

Plus, you have to put in the fact that, in most cases, the hair is shaved around and above the ear during the CI surgery. As we all know, it does take time for the hair to grow out.

All these things do not happen in one day.

At first I was thinking that the "timeliness" wasn't mentioned because a lot of it was retrospective.

December 18, 2006. (Why do I remember this date? That's my birthday.) Okay. Was that the date of the surgery? Was that the day of activation? I do know that it was the date Andy was first reported missing.

Then towards the end, the father admitted that he signed the papers for Andy to get the CI. He wanted his son to be happy, but he was hoping that Andy would wait till the Christmas break to get the CI surgery. That didn't make sense. Then, Hollywood didn't do its homework. Again, CI surgery, activation, and retraining the brain to hear sounds do not happen overnight.

What did you think of the show? Did I miss something here?