End of one of the World’s most successful Doctor Patient Relationships

27 December 2007

Rod Saunders was the first person in the world to have a fully implantable, multi-channel, cochlear implant after he lost his hearing in a serious car accident.

Last night he passed away after a long battle with illness.

Rod was the patient of pioneering surgeon scientist Professor Graeme Clark who was working out of the University of Melbourne’s Ear, Nose and Throat Department at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital.

It was his relationship with Professor Clark and willingness to be involved in the testing of the ground breaking piece of technology, that over 100,000 people worldwide are now able to hear again.

Announcing the death on behalf of Rod’s family, Professor Clark says today he farewells not only a patient, but a friend.

Professor Clark was told he was mad thinking he could make a deaf person hear again, but he was determined to make the impossible, possible.

Rod was so willing to be involved that he didn’t mind what would happen during the trials or whether the implant would work or not, as long as the research was helping deaf people.

The implant went ahead in August 1978 and after 2 false starts, Rod started hearing again.

The first thing he heard was God Save the Queen and in his excitement he stood up and pulled all the wires out of the machine he was hooked up to.

Professor Clark says the relief he felt when Rod stood up so was immense he didn’t mind Rod had pulled out all the cables.

“If the implant was not a success, I would have been out on the streets.”

Rod has donated his brain and ear bones to the University of Melbourne for future research purposes.

Next year marks the 30th birthday of the multi-channel cochlear implant and it is this system developed here in Australia, by Professor Clark’s research team and Cochlear Limited, that is used in 70 per cent of hearing loss cases world wide.

Cochlear implant patients, clinicians and engineers worldwide are indebted to Rod’s generosity, perseverance and willingness to be involved in studying this hitherto unknown technology.

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