KARACHI: Soon after Mufaiz was born, Hussain and his wife suspected that the infant was unable to hear. A trip to the doctor in the months after confirmed the couple's worst fears ─ their child was deaf in both ears.

The couple approached some of the top private hospitals in Karachi, but were told that the existing treatments for the condition were too expensive.

The charges for the cochlear implantation surgery at private hospitals range from Rs2.5 million to Rs3.2 million, according to Dr Umar Farooq, an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist at Civil Hospital.

Hussain, without many options, approached a public sector hospital for the surgery.

Dr Farooq and his team decided to carry out the implantation surgery on the one-year-old, a procedure that had never been carried out at any government-run health facility in Pakistan.

“It is the first time in the country’s history that a cochlear implantation surgery was carried out at a government hospital,” said Dr Farooq.

The surgery was conducted free of cost and Civil Hospital doctors expect the child to slowly recover his hearing in a month and a half.

"I am very happy. I am very grateful to the team of doctors who operated on my child," Hussain said.