Vic: Celebrations as bionic ear turns 30

AAP General News (Australia)
08-01-2008
Vic: Celebrations as bionic ear turns 30

MELBOURNE, Aug 1 AAP - In the three decades since its Australian inventor was told
he was mad, the bionic ear has helped 120,000 deaf people around the world to hear.

The bionic ear was first successfully implanted at Melbourne's Royal Victorian Eye
and Ear Hospital, on August 1, 1978, in Rod Saunders, who had lost his hearing in a car
crash.

The device's inventor, Graeme Clark, said today when he first started work on the implant,
people told him he was mad to think he could make a deaf person hear again.

"I was determined to make the impossible possible and I had a lot of pressure riding
on the success of the implant," Professor Clark said today.

"If it didn't work, I would have been out on the streets."

At today's anniversary, Prof Clark launched the Graeme Clark Foundation, dedicated
to improving the quality of life for deaf people.

The foundation aims to speed up research and help financially disadvantaged people
obtain an implant.

It is also supporting a Desert Knowledge Australia study into eradicating ear disease
among Australia's indigenous community.

AAP kn/sjm/it/de

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