Boy with bionic ear begins course to teach him sounds

A three-year-old deaf boy who underwent a pioneering operation to implant a bionic ear has started a potentially life-changing course in the US that will teach him the meanings of different sounds.

Calum Geary, an identical twin from Cork, made Irish medical history earlier this year when neurosurgeons in Manchester successfully performed a complex €60,000, HSE-funded operation that only 140 children in the world had ever had.

The youngster, who was born deaf, had implants fitted to his brain, which were then attached to a box in his ear.