Alicja’s first ‘hearing Christmas’ after brain op

A 3-year-old girl has heard the magical sounds of Christmas for the first time — thanks to pioneering brain surgery.

Cork-born Alicja Nowicki, who was deaf from birth, made Irish medical history this year when she became the first child from this country to be fitted with a bionic ear.

The girl, who suffers multiple disorders as a result of a severe case of Charge syndrome, was successfully fitted with an auditory brainstem implant in a complex €60,000 operation in Italy.