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Originally published October 29, 2025
Last updated October 31, 2025
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For Claudia Gonzales, answering the phone to chat with friends or clients is an unexpected and truly happy turn of events.
“This could not have happened a year ago,” says Claudia, 58, who stopped taking calls a few years ago after experiencing profound hearing loss in her right ear. Already deaf in her left ear, Claudia was forced to read voicemail transcripts and answer with texts.
That all changed in June 2024, when Claudia, a Covina resident and co-owner of an arts enrichment program for children, became the first person in California to undergo robotic cochlear implant surgery to restore hearing in her right ear.
The procedure, performed by Seiji Shibata, MD, PhD, an otolaryngologist with the USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, part of Keck Medicine of USC, is not yet widely available. Keck Medicine is currently the only provider in Southern California that offers it.
But Dr. Shibata believes more cochlear implant surgeons will use robotic assistance in the future because it lowers the risk of damaging the inner ear during implantation.
For Claudia, taking the leap with this new form of surgery provided the opportunity to embrace life in a way that she had lost since losing nearly all her hearing.
Unlike hearing aids, which amplify sounds, cochlear implants convert sounds into electrical impulses that stimulate the auditory nerve, which sends signals to the brain.
The implants have two pieces, one that is surgically placed in the inner ear, or cochlea, and another that is an external sound processor fitted behind the ear.
One key to a successful surgery is to place the implant in the cochlea, a very delicate part of the inner ear, as slowly as possible. Dr. Shibata notes that surgeons who do this procedure have steady hands and are accustomed to working slowly, but even the steadiest doctors can’t move as precisely as the robot.
“We try to minimize trauma to the inner ear as much as possible when we are doing this, and I think the stability with the robot is superior,” Dr. Shibata says.
The idea, he explains, is that causing less trauma to this very sensitive part of the body should help patients develop fewer complications during recovery and may also lead to better long-term outcomes.
Cochlear implants only used to be placed in patients who were profoundly deaf, but the range of candidates has recently expanded to people who have some residual hearing in one or both ears. The procedure is relatively quick and performed on an outpatient basis and has been associated with few complications.
Dr. Shibata believes that employing the robot is an opportunity to make outcomes even better. He adds that this is particularly important for people who have some residual hearing. In those cases, minimizing trauma to the inner ear during surgery helps preserve what is left of their hearing, which gives them the best possible outcome.
Claudia was born deaf in her left ear, but the hearing in her right ear was strong when she was a child. As a young adult, her hearing diminished slowly in her right ear and she eventually used hearing aids that gave her the boost she needed to chat at parties, understand movies or television and participate in work meetings.
In her early 50s, however, her hearing in her right ear began a precipitous decline that, in only a couple of years, was taking a serious toll on her life. Even with the most powerful hearing aid on the market, she heard garbled speech, which made it difficult to communicate.
Like so many of the estimated 40 million American adults who experience hearing loss, Claudia began to socially withdraw because of her hearing loss. Untreated hearing loss can make communication difficult, leading to social withdrawal that can reduce mental stimulation and increase the risk of loneliness, anxiety, depression, cognitive decline and dementia.
“I had many people who depended on me — my husband, our son, my parents, my employees — and I felt like I was letting them down because I couldn’t be fully present for them,” she says.
Ultimately, with the comprehensive guidance of the USC Caruso audiology team, she sought the robotic implant procedure because she believed it would empower her to confidently run her business and look after her family.
In Claudia’s case, Dr. Shibata was not trying to preserve any residual hearing, as she had lost all natural hearing in both ears by the time of her surgery. He still believed that using the robot would help preserve the structure of her inner ear to give her the best possible outcome.
Claudia underwent the new procedure at Keck Hospital of USC.
“It was unbelievable to me that it could be so smooth,” she says. “It was quick and painless.”
She was equally surprised that she experienced no common side effects, such as pain or dizziness, during her recovery from surgery.
She returned to Keck Medical Center of USC a few weeks after surgery to have her device turned on and immediately heard the audiologist ask, “Can you hear me?”
“I could not believe how lucky I was,” she says, noting that not all implant recipients hear or understand words right away.
Claudia began rehabilitation after surgery, as all patients do after receiving a cochlear implant, to help the brain relearn words and other common sounds. Claudia is continuing her rehab a year later, but she can now enjoy conversations in a variety of settings, listen to podcasts, run her business again and, maybe most importantly, she can answer the phone when her family needs her.
According to Dr. Shibata, more data is needed to fully understand the robot’s impact on longterm outcomes, but Claudia’s experience is a very positive first step.
Claudia is determined to get the most out of her restored hearing.
“I am so grateful for this technology and the doctors at Keck Medicine of USC ,” she says. “I feel like I am getting a second chance at life, and I am taking advantage of this as much as I can.”
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