Human rights “You’re going to have an operation,” the principal said, pointing to 14-year-old Anna-Leena Lahdenperä – No one asked for permits when 37 children underwent cruel human testing in 1960 in Oulu

Principal came to the class and pointed a finger: you are going to be cut.

Anna-Leena Lahdenperä was a 14-year-old student at the Oulu School for the Deaf in 1964 and remembers that moment well.

“Your ear is being cut now, the principal announced. When my mother came to visit and told me I was going to have surgery soon, she wondered a lot about it. No one had asked my parents for permission, ”says Lahdenperä.

Lahdenperä72, is one of 37 children who underwent “hearing improvement surgery” at the Oulu School for the Deaf in the 1960s.

Similar surgeries had previously been performed on adults, but in Oulu they were reportedly the first to be performed on children.

“The surgery was supposed to make us audible. When I returned home to Tornio after the operation, the home crowd was disappointed when I still could not hear, ”says Lahdenperä, who has been deaf since birth.

The same thing happened to all the children who were cut. No one’s hearing improved – not even to a small degree.

For children Surgery in the 1960s has been a painful and silent issue in the deaf and sign language community until very recently.

Researcher at the Humanities University of Applied Sciences Outi Ahonen says that the discussion in the deaf community started only a few years ago after he raised the issue at a seminar of the Finnish Society for the History of the Deaf.

Ahonen thinks it is incomprehensible that so many children were cut.

“It’s hard to understand because the surgeries were of no help or benefit. Did the deaf children become guinea pigs, ”says Ahonen.

Ear surgeries is highlighted also in a recent report, Signed Memories, which, under the leadership of the University of Helsinki, examines injustices against the deaf and sign language speakers. The investigation launched a state reconciliation process with the deaf and sign language community in accordance with the government’s program.

Ahonen has studied ear surgeries together with a researcher at the University of Oulu Marjo Laitalan with. Memory information has been collected in the recently launched Voices of the Silent People project, which collects sign language information about deaf childhood and schooling.

According to Laitala, what was done in Oulu is connected in history both to the time of oralism and to the developmental stage of medicine.

For racial hygiene based oralism is a trend in teaching the deaf that emphasized the importance of speaking and reading from the lips. In accordance with the oral mindset, the use of sign language was banned and attempted to be eradicated.

Ear surgery was of a high international standard in Finland in the 1960s. Otosclerosis surgeries had been performed with good results. Adults with progressive inner ear disease had in several cases been able to restore hearing.

“There was talk in the newspapers at the time that the deaf were being heard now,” Laitala describes.

At Oulu County Hospital, surgeries for adults were performed by a professor Tauno Palva. He was contacted by the principal of the School for the Deaf Helvi Rasiwho asked if the children could be cut.

The project became a scientific study, which at that time did not mean the same thing as it does today. The ethical rationale for research does not stand up to today’s review.

About the results a scientific article has been written stating that no one ‘s hearing improved much. A few children had better hearing, but so little that it had no practical significance. In the article, the researchers define the number of hertz that should at least be exceeded in order for such a cut to be considered.

Although the research is invested in its own time, Laitala finds the number of children undergoing staggering.

“Although some of the children had already been examined, the surgeries were still performed in the fall of 1965 or in the spring of 1966,” says Laitala.

Of the school students deafened, six were 7–10 years old, twenty-one were 11–15 years old, and ten were over 15 years old.

Oulu resident Arja Peltokorpi64, was seven years old at the time of the operation.

“At the operating table, I resisted terribly, rushing and kicking. The mask was pressed to the face violently, ”Peltokorpi recalls.

The field corpus had deafened at the age of 3.5 years as a result of meningitis. When she got home from the “hearing improvement surgery,” her mother eagerly asked if she could hear.

“It was a big shock and disappointment for Mom when I still couldn’t hear. I think the principal and the doctors had promised my mother that I would hear, ”says Peltokorpi.

According to Laitala, some of the children’s homes probably knew about the surgery, some did not. The hospital was generally contacted only by the school.

For children and the young people, on the other hand, were not told anything about the reasons or results of the surgery. Or if told, it was done according to the time of oralism by speaking. No sign received.

“Something was probably said in the mouth, but we didn’t hear it. Nothing was explained to us by sign, ”says Lahdenperä.

To that at the time, the children did not necessarily know the sign at all when they entered the school for the deaf and its dormitory. Not even in Lahti.

“There were no signs at home and many times outraged when no one could explain, even if I wanted to know. When I came to school for the deaf, I looked at the children’s signs in shock. I soon learned it myself and used sign language in the dorm. Signing at school was completely forbidden, ”says Lahdenperä.

Peltokorpi recalls that at that time, doctors also forbade parents to sign and teach their deaf children to sign.

“Even the deaf people’s own organizations were against sign language, and we in the family did not sign because of it either,” says Peltokorpi.

Studying at school was frustrating for the deaf. An hour-long learning of articulation: first one week a-sound, then another au-sound.

Before the surgery on the children was unaware even because no studies were done beforehand. The children were just taken in and taken to the operating room.

According to Laitala, it is difficult to investigate the cases because no patient records have been preserved. In the late 1960s, the authorities decided to destroy hospital records for reasons of space, among other things. The key players in the project, on the other hand, have either died or are no longer interviewable.

“People have been unsure why they were cut,” says Laitala.

Osalle in children, ear surgery caused long-term or permanent harm. Arja Peltokorpi sought medical attention in adulthood due to balance problems and nausea.

“A good quality tumor was found around the ear. It was said to have been caused by surgeries performed as a child, ”says Peltokorpi.

Unnecessary cuts in Peltokorpea and Lahdenperä are still annoying.

“By what right were we cut? Not everyone even had the permission of their parents, ”they pondered.

Laitala thinks, based on the interview material, that the arrangement of the surgeries was in the hands of the principal at the school for the deaf.

“One of the school’s teachers said in an interview that he did not know anything about the matter and said that he was shocked that this had been done,” says Laitala.

In Peltokorve and Lahdenperä, the principal remained distant at the school for the deaf – as did the rest of the staff. The school and dormitory operate under strict discipline.

“I always try to be terribly kind. It was a means of survival, ”says Lahdenperä.