Abu Dhabi: Indian worker Mohammad Ali has not spoken a word in the 46 years of his life. Hearing and speech-impaired since birth, Ali lived in a mute world.
But all that changed last month after he landed at the home of Iraqi Amjad Al Yazdi – a hearing aid specialist based in Abu Dhabi, for a house-moving job.
Ali, 46, who works for Delight International Movers helped Yazdi shift his house from Corniche. However, when he went there, Yazdi’s wife, Alia, was irked by his non-responsiveness. “She even complained to the company supervisor,” Yazdi recalled. “But as soon she found out Ali could not hear or speak, she wanted me to see him.”
The Iraqi medical engineer helped the Indian with a hearing aid device for free. The long and painful silence in Ali’s world was finally broken. “Now he can hear with the help of the hearing aid. He has even started responding by making indistinct sounds,” an elated Yazdi, 60, who runs the Emirates Audiology Research Centre in Electra Street, told XPRESS.
After consultation, Yazdi suggested the man go for a cochlear implant on his left ear. “The right ear had severe hearing loss, but fortunately his left ear was only moderately impaired,” said Yazdi.
As for Ali, it is an all new experience to soak in the sounds. “He has started listening to music and even bought a notepad,” said Shajahan Hamza, a colleague and relative who lent his voice for Ali when XPRESS interviewed him.
And now every day, he calls his wife and two children in India. “They do Skype chat. Ali cannot talk but he listens to every word they say,” said Hamza. According to doctors, Ali can improve and start speaking in a few months.
Ali’s friends and relatives told XPRESS his family could not afford medical care because his father died at a young age. His mother is illiterate and struggled to bring up her four kids. “The implant cost Dh4,000 with cost of batteries also provided by the specialist,” said Hamza, an administration assistant in the same company.
Ali’s supervisor Rolando Padua said: “He can follow instructions if you show him what to do. Now communicating with him is easier as he can hear.”
