Growing up, Dr Sandra Desa Souza closely watched how hearing impairments had affected the lives of children, especially those from underserved backgrounds. She saw how these children struggled through life, unable to hear clearly or speak effectively. At the time, India had very limited options to support them.
Dr Sandra grew up in Mumbai in a family that was already connected to this world. Her father, Dr Joe V Desa, was an ENT doctor, and her mother, Nancy Souza, ran Stephen High School for the Deaf and Aphasic, where children received auditory-verbal training and education up to Class 10.
As a child, Dr Sandra often spent time at the school, watching the students try to communicate through gestures and lip reading. To cover this gap, she went on to spend over 50 years improving the lives of children living with hearing impairments.
Life Changing Surgery
In 1974, Dr Sandra started her career at Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai. In the 1980s, during a medical conference in the United States, she met the owner of a company that made cochlear implants. That conversation stayed with her and sparked the idea of bringing this surgery to India.
After she returned, a cochlear implant workshop was organised at the hospital. A foreign surgeon performed the procedure on four children to demonstrate how it worked. Dr Sandra then carried out the surgery on the fifth child, becoming the first Indian doctor to perform a cochlear implant surgery.
In 1987, she helped bring cochlear implant surgery to India and performed one of the first such surgeries by an Indian doctor, which earned her a name in the Limca Book of Records. Through her efforts, she has changed the lives of over 2,800 people, in recognition of which, she has also earned the Padma Shri Award in 2020.
Way Forward
Over the years, Dr Sandra, now 79, has attended and organised several national and international conferences, lectures, and workshops in her field. Staying up to date with changing times, she has incorporated changing technologies to assist people with hearing impairments across India. She is also the first Indian fellow of the American Otological Society.
Dr Sandra’s journey shows how one person’s determination can quietly change thousands of lives. Over the years, she has helped many children born into silence hear their first sounds and learn to speak. For these families, it meant more than a medical treatment it meant a new beginning.
