Golden world of music a dream-come-true for cochlear implant pioneer

Seated at a grand piano before an appreciative audience, Kay Basham played everything from show tunes to New Orleans jazz during a visit to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in September 2005.

Basham's concert was a gift of thanks for the medical miracle that changed her life.

The transformation occurred after years of hearing impairment and just two years after she became deaf at age 31. Following months of preparation, on her 33rd birthday in 1988, Basham received a first generation cochlear implant that restored her ability to hear.

The device worked so well that Basham was able to resume giving piano lessons, first in Iowa and later in Thibodaux, Louisiana, where she and her husband have lived the past several years.

Basham's life-changing experiences at UI Hospitals and Clinics, and her confidence in the world-class expertise of the cochlear implant team, were so great that she returned in May 2005 for a second (bilateral) implant in the opposite ear, giving her fuller, higher quality sound.

Remarkably, the same team of neurscientists&emdash;including otolaryngologist Bruce Gantz, M.D., and audiologist Mary Lowder&emdash;was involved in both implants and the extensive, vitally important training that follows the actual procedure.

"This place means so much to me and what I've been able to accomplish these past few years," she says. "I could hardly wait to come back."