Chapter 2781 Hearing Impairment

This is something Zhou Buqi has always wanted to do. The proportion of deaf-mute people in China is the highest in the world. One reason is that too many wrong people were injected with the injection, causing deafness; the other reason is that there is a real lack of money, and neither medical insurance nor charity insurance can keep up.

Zhou Buqi had just returned from the United States and was deeply touched by this aspect.

The U.S. health care system is also terrible. But there are many charitable funds in the United States. If you encounter difficulties, you can apply for funding from these charities.

Domestic wealthy people, even if there are various policies and public opinion requirements, they are asked to donate, but there are still too few donations, and the charity industry is very immature.

Many times, "deaf" is a unified word. As long as it is "deaf", it will be "dumb".

Because when a person is young, the development of the vocal system must match that of the auditory system. If a person cannot even hear, it is impossible to learn how others speak.

If you don't speak for a long time, your vocal system will degrade over time and it will be difficult to speak.

On the contrary, if you are an adult who later becomes deaf due to an accident, or if you are an elderly person who has lost your hearing as he gets older, this is different.

Even if they can't hear anything, they can still speak.

There are a lot of people who are just hearing impaired.

The main reason why I became mute is because it was not discovered and treated in time when I was very young. If cochlear implants are given to children at a very young age, they will be able to hear and speak, and they will be just like normal people.

Zhou Buqi has a distant cousin who lost his hearing after receiving the wrong injection when he was a child. He was five or six years old at that time. He could speak originally, but his ability to speak gradually deteriorated, and now he is deaf-mute.

Even though he was given a cochlea a few years ago and could hear again, his ability to speak was still lost.

Zhou Buqi knew that this was not an exception.

When he does charity, he must do something big that matches his status. This is the track he chose. In the long term, it must be a brain-computer interface, controlled by thoughts and assisted by artificial intelligence. In the short term, cochlear technology with mature technology is a better solution.

The disadvantage is that it is too expensive.

Zhou Buqi wanted to get this matter started, so he invited He Yang, Meng Houkun and Guo Dan to establish the Ziweixing Charity Foundation. The first big project to be done was to provide hearing-impaired newborns across the country. I can hear the sound!

The candidate for the president of this foundation is either Meng Houkun or Guo Dan. It depends on who of the two is willing to participate.

Because this was a relatively professional matter, Guo Dan specially invited Director Fang of the Department of Otolaryngology from Union Hospital, a respected old gentleman.

Director Fang said: "According to official statistics, we have more than 200 million hearing-impaired people..."

Meng Houkun was shocked when he heard this.

A better cochlea costs at least hundreds of thousands, more than 200 million people?

What is this for?

Meng Houkun quickly said: "As the elderly grow older, their hearing naturally declines. This is not part of our plan."

Director Fang said: "But even so, the scale of the hearing-impaired community in China is very large, certainly more than 25 million."

Meng Houkun laughed.

What the hell!

No matter how strong Ziweixing's financial resources are, it is impossible to cover such a wide range. This would require trillions of investments... This would require national power, and it is simply not something that a private enterprise can touch.

Zhou Buqi said qualitatively: "The power of an individual is always limited. We still need to help as many children as possible, especially newborns with hearing impairment."

Director Fang nodded repeatedly, "Well, that's right. The sooner the hearing impairment is treated, the better. The earlier the cochlear implant is performed, the more conducive to the normal development of the child's body. If the cochlear implant is discovered in time before the child is two or three years old, , then his future life and growth will be no different from healthy people."

Zhou Buqi smiled, "Yes, that's it!"

Director Fang sighed, "But even this is still a huge number. Hearing impairment has a strong genetic attribute, which is determined by genes, about 6%. Now in our country, more than 60% of children born with hearing impairment are born every year. , can reach 30,000 people.”

Zhou Buqi felt more at peace.

This is an acceptable number, and with Ziweixing’s strength, it is completely achievable.

Director Fang continued: "In addition to congenital hearing impairment, there are many acquired causes, such as domestic violence. A slap in the face of a child of several years old may destroy the auditory system, and medical accidents. If you live in a high-noise environment for a long time, it may also have an impact. The number of children with acquired causes will increase by 30,000 every year. From a medical point of view, if children can have cochlear implants before they are 3 years old, treatment, then he is almost the same as a normal person and does not require any additional training. If a child is implanted with a cochlear before the age of 7, with certain professional training and guidance, he can reach the level of a normal person. If it is later, it will It’s no longer effective.”

Meng Houkun asked: "Before the age of 7, there will be an increase of 60,000 people every year?"

Director Fang nodded and said, "Well, it's basically on this scale. But now the number of newborns seems to be declining, and the number should be getting smaller and smaller."

Guo Dan asked softly: "Dean Fang, how much does cochlear treatment cost per session?"

Director Fang said: "The main thing is the cost of equipment. In our hospital, if we use foreign cochlea, the price may reach 200,000 yuan. If we use domestic cochlea, it can be reduced to less than 100,000 yuan. In addition, there are Surgery fees, follow-up observation fees, and the cost of replacing the cochlea after future damage. This is a huge expense that most families simply cannot afford. Children in China who can truly receive cochlear treatment , not even 10%.”

Even if a person’s average expenditure is 200,000, there will be an increase of 60,000 people every year...

In other words, Ziweixing has to pay 12 billion for this every year.

This is really too much.

"The hospital's profit margin is too big. How much is a broken cochlea worth?" Meng Houkun shook his head and snorted, "I think it's only a few thousand yuan!"

Director Fang was shocked, "Thousands of dollars? No, no!"

Meng Houkun said rudely: "The charity we do is to benefit hearing-impaired children across the country and give them a new life. I will be responsible for this matter and manage this charity foundation. No one can do it." I earn a cent of the dirty money on my head! My father is Meng Gang!"

Director Fang was a little panicked and said quickly: "The cost can certainly be reduced, but... but it will be more troublesome to implement. In today's market, medical representatives of major medical companies are in contact with hospitals, which contains huge potential. interests. Even if you do good things, you will encounter great resistance."

Zhou Buqi waved his hand and said with a smile: "It is always harder to do good things than bad things. You have to do whatever you can. However, the price of the cochlea cannot be determined?"

Director Fang hesitated for a moment and said truthfully: "In the medical device market, it is normal to have profits of ten times or eight times. However, all parties must share. The more people and institutions participate in sharing, the greater the resistance. .”

Zhou Buqi knew what was going on.

For the 50,000 to 60,000 new hearing-impaired children added every year, even if there is really no way to break through the resistance, he has to do these things. This is a good deed.

If that didn't work, he would go into action himself, invest in one or two cochlear surgery companies, and then find cooperation with several major hospitals to bypass all middlemen!

Internet entrepreneurs should be best at bypassing middlemen.

Keeping costs down is not about saving money.

But to help more people.