Give Ballito’s deaf baby Storm the gift of hearing

Early childhood is a time for discovery, playing with friends, singing nursery rhymes and learning the alphabet.

But for 11-month-old Storm Sutton, a world without sound has been the only world he has known.

The toddler was born completely deaf.

His mother, Ballito resident Tiffany Sutton, said it was only a few months ago that she realised that something was not right.

“I noticed during lockdown that he did not turn when I called him. We initially put it down to him being preoccupied, so we never saw the signs.

“It was only when I took him for his injections and looked at the booklet on the developmental stages which said that babies should be responding to their name from around 6 months.”

Tiffany said they started doing small tests at home, like clapping hands behind him and slamming doors, but he did not react.

The family was prepared for good news, confident the audiologist would tell them they had removed fluid from Storm’s ears and he would now be able to hear.

But an ABR (auditory brainstem response) test confirmed their worst fears – Storm was diagnosed as profoundly deaf. The family was shocked.

“To think that he has never heard us saying ‘I love you’, nor does he know the sound of our voices,” said Tiffany.

“We cried for about a week, then we were angry at the world and life and everything in-between. This is not like a cut or a bruise that you can fix, this is forever, but as time went on we made peace with it and the healing process began.”

The next step for Storm requires him to be fitted with behind-the-ear hearing aids, but because his hearing loss is severe he may not respond to them. Speech therapy is also a requisite to see if he can start talking.

For children with severe to profound hearing loss, hearing aids may provide only limited benefits while cochlear implants provide enough auditory input to help develop speech and language skills.

“Before we can establish if he is a candidate for cochlear implants he will need to go for a number of tests including a CT and MRI scan,” said Tiffany, who said they had started raising funds for the surgery because he was a strong candidate.

Should Storm be suitable this will need to be done before his second birthday.

A growing number of deaf babies are receiving cochlear implants soon after their first birthday. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the surgery for children as young as 12 months.

The cost of the surgery, post-operative care, the devices themselves and the maintenance is in the region of R500 000.

During cochlear implant surgery, the surgeon places electrodes into the cochlea (the sense organ that translates sound into nerve impulses to be sent to the brain) and an electronic device called the receiver under the skin behind the ear, securing it to the skull.

The implants are then able to send a signal to the auditory nerve, giving patients the sensation of sound and the gift of hearing.

“Life has changed. We have moved back in with my husband’s parents in order to afford to put Storm on a medical aid and the other costs involved but it hardly makes a dent. Medical aid will only start covering Storm after 12 months because he has already been diagnosed.”

Tiffany was retrenched following the economic fallout from Covid-19.

“We are facing challenges ahead but Storm is a little fighter and we want to give him the chance to lead as normal a life as possible. His world is not limited and neither is he.”

To make a donation towards Storm’s medical care and surgery, log onto backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/storm.

For further details contact Tiffany at tiffrichards@hotmail.com.

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