Calum needs ‘bionic ears’

The greatest gift three-year-old Donnacha Geary will get is to know one day his twin brother will be able to hear him say he loves him.

The Geary family, from Ballyhooly, Co Cork, are praying that Calum will become the first Irish child to get pioneering ‘bionic ear’ treatment in England.

Calum, who was born without hearing and balance nerves, will have electrodes implanted into his brain connected to a miniature hearing aids when he undergoes surgery at Manchester University Hospital later this month.

The family have been told that the HSE will fund the €60,000 operation under the Treatment Abroad Scheme, but they will need to raise an additional €110,000 for post-operative care in the next three years.

His father, Andrew, said a team of neurosurgeons, auditory brainstem implant (ABI) experts, paediatric consultants and anaesthetists, will be required for the operation. “This is the first step, the device then needs to be turned on around six to eight weeks after surgery. Children typically cry the first time they hear sound as it is something they will never have experienced before,” Andrew said.

His mother, Helen, said that they were concerned when Calum wasn’t able to crawl at eight months and wasn’t able to speak a few words when he was a year old, unlike his twin.

He was diagnosed with the rare condition cochlear nerve aplasia and his parents travelled to Italy to speak with Dr Victtorio Colletti, who pioneered the ABI operation which Calum will undergo. “He said that Calum was an ideal candidate for it. This is cutting edge stuff.”

Since last August, the family have been learning sign language to communicate with Calum, including his brothers Barry, 8, and Matthew, 6, and grandparents Tommy and Eilish Walsh.

A fundraising campaign has been launched to help Calum’s parents with post-operative care.

* People wishing to donate to the Calum Geary Trust should send money to the Ulster Bank Fermoy, sort code 98 57 25 and account number 10516017.