The profoundly deaf After cochlear implant surgery, a nine-month-old boy was able hear his father and mother for the first time.
Everett Colley, from Yorktown, Virginia, was born unable to hear, and had to learn sign language to communicate with his parents Ashley, 29 and Zachary, 30.
Everett was later diagnosed by doctors and told his parents. A cochlear implant procedure was performed on the baby, and the 9-month-old girl went in. an operation At The Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters, December 6.
The infant was born two weeks later The external components of his devices were attached to him and he could finally hear his parents.
The footage was captured December 20 and shows Everett staring at his parents while he listens to their voices.
Everett Colley from Yorktown Virginia hugs Ashley his mother, 29 year old, as he listens to his parents for the first time.
He smiles big at his mom and Zachary (30, his father) begins to talk to him.
For comfort, he looks at his mother as he smiles and leans towards her.
He smiles and then gives his mom a hug. Do you hear me? Can you hear me talking with you? You’re right.
Ashley is a stay at home mother.
I’m certain that most people react to the news of their baby’s deafness in the same way as we do.
“But it is not. It’s actually beautiful.
Everett’s birth in February resulted in him failing his newborn hearing test. But, as his brothers Abel (7 years old), Greyson (5 years), and Joel (3 years) did, Everett’s mother wasn’t immediately concerned. He believed it was because of fluid buildup inside his ear.
“I returned a month later, they performed the same tests as for the newborn. She was like, “It’s possible that there might still be fluid,” and I began to question it.
“Then, I returned for an auditory-brain response test. That’s when she pulled up her chair and said that he had profound hearing loss.
He looks at the world around him and picks up different sounds.
Everett looks up at his mother, and he leans back towards him as he listens for his parents.
It was all that I remembered. The rest was lost in the blur.
“It doesn’t run in my family, and it’s difficult not to think about all the negative things at the beginning. So I was in shock.
“Because I had Covid, I was alone, my husband was in waiting, and I remember trying to leave the hospital, but then I felt helpless and broke down when I finally saw him.
Everett is a candidate for cochlear surgery. A small, electronic device is placed underneath the skin behind the ears and connected to an external microphone.
It has wires attached to the cochlear that convert sound from the microphone to electrical impulses, which are then sent to the brain.
Ashley added: “It wasn’t easy, particularly at first, not knowing he couldn’t see.
“Shushing them doesn’t work for him. He became upset and it was difficult to calm him down.
“We have learned sign language. Our first family sign was “I love you”.
“He knows milk! That has been very helpful!”
The young boy, who qualified for cochlear implant surgery, looks at his mother Ashley as she speaks to him
“We love music. On weekends, we’ll put on our Bluetooth speakers and call it our little dance club.
“One time we began giving the speaker to them so that he could feel the vibrations from it.
Everett went in for a four hour surgery at the Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters on December 6 but it wasn’t until two weeks later that he had the external portions attached and he was finally able to hear his parents’ voices.
Ashley added: ‘After the surgery my husband was like ”Ashley have you even put him down?”
“We don’t see hearing loss as something bad, but as a blessing.
‘Hearing, while something we assume is normal, can be a blessing.