Parents of deaf baby told to wait 5 years for care

A deaf toddler’s family has effectively been told to either emigrate or wait five years for the life-changing care needed.

The parents of 9-month-old Benjamin Fellowes revealed the situation after learning there are no plans for him to be given a bilateral cochlear ear implant.

His mother Rachel, an emergency medicine doctor from Skibbereen in West Cork, said she and her husband Stephen were told within weeks of his birth tat their second son had hearing problems.