Past and present colleagues, cochlear implant recipients and supporters gather at celebration event.

Sue Walters and Professor Bill Gibson AO are two people noted in RPA Hospital history.

Sue was the first person in New South Wales to receive the life-changing cochlear implant surgery in 1984, performed by Professor Gibson.

“It was so brave of Bill to go ahead, I think, with this surgery, because there was a lot of opposition. So, I'm eternally grateful to you for that,” she said. 

At the age of 22, Sue lost all hearing after a case of meningitis. 

“I didn't even know anyone who was deaf, and my conversations were all written on notepads. I thought, well, why not try the implant? I thought it had to be a lot better than what I had, which was nothing except loud head noise,” she said.

Pioneering surgeon, Professor Bill Gibson AO, was running a program for multichannel cochlear implants at the time, when Sue volunteered to be the first recipient.

“In those days, 40 years ago, the cochlear implant was very controversial. There were several groups internationally trying to develop an effective cochlear implant, but the idea conflicted with many of the scientists of the day who said it would never be possible for electrodes to be sufficient to allow speech to be interpreted by the ear,” he said.

Developed by Professor Graham Clark AC in Melbourne, the new multi-channel cochlear implant required outside testing to verify its success – and Professor Gibson raised his hand.

The surgery took hours, and was completed with RPA colleague Dr Barry Scrivener AM, Australia's first specialist otologist, and scrub nurse Denise Lithgow.

With the implant’s success, Sue also became the first deaf person in the world to make a phone call using a cochlear implant when she called Professor Gibson and had a conversation. A record of the call was captured on video by RPA audio-visual staff and shared all over the world. 

“It was excellent, and showed just how good Graham Clark's cochlear implant was,” Professor Gibson said.

“Here at RPA, we stand on the shoulders of giants, and we continue this pioneering cochlear implant work,” said Clinical Professor Catherine Berman, current RPA ENT surgeon.

“RPA continues to be the centre of excellence for cochlear implants in New South Wales. We strive for our best outcomes for our patients, each of them having a very different history, and different expectations.”

Cochlear implant numbers have grown significantly from Professor Gibson’s first operation to approximately 20,000 in Australia, a third of which happen in New South Wales. 

The commemorative event to mark 40 years since Sue’s surgery saw past and present members of RPA’s multidisciplinary team, patients and their families, and representatives from support organisations gather to celebrate the outcomes of cochlear implant.

It was also an opportunity to recognise Dr Halit Sanli, cochlear implant biomedical engineer, who created protocols and enabled accurate physiological testing during his thirty-year career at RPA.

Sue has since become an advocate and is currently the president of CICADA, a charity and volunteer organisation dedicated to supporting hearing-impaired Australians who use cochlear implants.