Operation Selva Brings Cochlear Implants to Rwanda
Operation Selva Brings Cochlear Implants to Rwanda
By Audrey Maynard and Lauren McKinnon
When Richard Gurgel, MD, MSCI, boarded a plane to Rwanda in August 2025, he carried more than just his surgical instruments. He carried hope for 10 small children who had never heard their parents’ voices. The humanitarian trip, called Operation Selva, marked the first cochlear implant surgeries ever performed in Rwanda.
The trip was named after Selva, a 4-year-old Afghan refugee in Rwanda who intended to travel to the United States for a cochlear implant surgery. But due to obstacles with travel visas for her family, she was unable to come to Salt Lake City.
Undeterred, Gurgel, a neurotologist (ear and hearing specialist) at University of Utah Health, traveled to the country to perform the first cochlear implant surgery in Rwanda for Selva and nine other children.
Key points:
- Richard Gurgel, MD, partnered with Rwandan surgeons for Operation Selva, which performed Rwanda’s first cochlear implant surgeries for 10 children.
- Gurgel helped contribute to Rwanda’s medical infrastructure so native doctors and health care professionals can provide the same services to their own citizens in the future.
- Operation Selva strengthened University of Utah Health's global partnership with Rwanda’s Ministry of Health.
A Global Partnership Focused on Expanding Care
What began as an effort to help one child quickly grew into a broader collaboration to help many more.
“In medicine, there's a common goal that we're trying to help other people, cure human suffering, and make lives better,” Gurgel says. “We may have different training and background, but the goal is the same.”
The operation was funded through support from Gary and Ann Crocker at the Sorenson Legacy Foundation and additional partnerships by Rwanda’s Ministry of Health, cochlear implant manufacturer Med-El, and Michael Fairbanks, CEO of Akagera Pharmaceuticals.
Gurgel partnered with several Rwandan surgeons to perform the procedure. Together, the Rwanda-based health care team screened dozens of children to identify the first 10 patients eligible for the life-changing procedure.
“I was immediately impressed with the level of dedication to making this endeavor successful,” Gurgel says. “The Rwandan clinicians want to learn and be able to provide these services to the members of their own country.”
Together, international industry partners, ENT surgeons from Utah and Rwanda, and audiologists worked side-by-side to make the historic surgeries possible.
How Cochlear Implants Help Restore Hearing
A cochlear implant is a device that can help people with profound hearing loss.
Unlike hearing aids, which make sounds louder through a speaker and a microphone, the cochlear implants bypass damaged parts of the inner ear and send sound signals directly to the hearing nerve. The brain then interprets those signals as sound.
The device has two parts:
- An external sound processor worn behind the ear captures the sound through microphones and digitally converts the sound to an electrical signal.
- An internal sound stimulator surgically implanted under the skin sends electrical signals to the inner ear, hearing nerve, and brain.
During surgery, the surgeon places a small electrode inside the cochlea (the part of the inner ear that sends sound signals to the brain) and secures the receiver beneath the skin behind the ear.
For many patients, receiving a cochlear implant can feel like learning to hear for the first time. The brain gradually adapts to new sounds through rehabilitation and adjustment.
“Cochlear implant surgery can have major lifelong benefits for them in terms of education, employment opportunities, relationships, cognitive function, and all aspects of their lives that hearing influences,” Gurgel says.
Recovering Sound and Creating New Possibilities
At University of Utah Health, cochlear implant surgery is performed for nearly 300 patients each year. But for Gurgel, his work in Rwanda shaped a unique, lasting perspective for himself and each individual patient.
“I feel incredibly grateful and humbled to be a part of it,” Gurgel reflects. “To bring something we do almost every day to an environment that's never had access to it before was deeply meaningful. This is one of the greatest career highlights for me.”
Families felt the impact as well, referring to Gurgel as “Muganga,” a Swahili word for healer.
Selva, for whom the operation was named after, now feels inspired to one day become a doctor because of the experience.
“To tell parents that we were able to do everything we planned in surgery and see the hope in their eyes—that was the most meaningful moment for me,” Gurgel says.
Building Long-Term Access to Care
This humanitarian trip was the first step in a global partnership between University of Utah Health and Rwanda’s Ministry of Health.
Restoring sound for ten children was the goal, but just as important was helping establish the foundation for Rwanda’s future cochlear implant program. Working side-by-side with Gurgel, Rwandan health care workers look forward to serving their own citizens with more options for hearing loss. They have developed a 10-year plan to build the infrastructure for Rwandan citizens to receive cochlear implant surgery in Rwanda by Rwandan clinicians.
Gurgel plans to return to Rwanda to speak at the national ENT society conference and perform more cochlear implant surgeries.
In the future, he envisions a more permanent exchange program between Rwanda and the Spencer Eccles Fox School of Medicine where Rwandan doctors attend the University of Utah for specialized training. In turn, Rwandan physicians could teach Americans about cultural health care differences—especially those in what Gurgel calls “the social medicine of a collectivist society—a culture that cares for one another.”
A special thank you to all those who helped make the humanitarian trip possible including Dr. Augusten Sendegeya, Dr. Jean-Marie Vianney Dushimiyimana, Dr. Kaitesi Mukara, and other surgeons from the Rwanda Military Hospital and University Teaching Hospital of Kigali.
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