Thomas, a 3-year-old boy, was born without a right ear. To allow him to hear like all children his age, his parents are ready to pay a colossal sum to have him operated on in the United States in 2023.
They are ready to do anything so that their son can hear with both ears. In August 2019, Thomas was born without a right ear. A malformation which was not detected before the birth of the little boy, and for which he should, in 2023, have surgery in the United States. Determined to be “operated at all costs”his parents are now ready to pay the sum of 90,000 dollars, i.e. 95,000 euros. “Collapsed” Upon learning that Thomas was missing an ear, his parents, Stéphanie and Yves, initially found themselves completely helpless in the face of this very rare aplasia, which we do not count “only fifty new cases per year in France”. “The ears are not a point of vigilance, so we do not check that during ultrasounds. He had an ear bud so, in any case, there would have been a relief on the images”thus explained his mother to West France.
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Besides the fact that Thomas is missing an ear, he also happens to have no pinna, auditory canal, or eardrum. Fortunately, after hearing tests, the doctors announced to his parents, three days after his birth, that he was hard of hearing, and not deaf. “It was a real relief for us!” thus admits Stéphane Belmont, the father of the little boy. However, his parents quickly discover what consequences this malformation has on his development, which causes in particular a language delay. “At 2 and a half years old, he only said twenty words“, says his father. But if now “he makes sentences”thanks in particular to a follow-up with the speech therapist and to a device that he wears at all times, his parents do not lose sight of their main objective: to have him operated.
A heavy eight-hour operation
After having met French doctors who explained to them that this operation was “too risky”Thomas’s parents discovered that a child, suffering from the same malformation as their son, had been operated on in the United States. “The success rate for Thomas is estimated at 80 on a scale of up to 90”thus assured Stéphanie and Yves, who will have to stay in California for no less than five weeks, in a private clinic in Palo Alto, where their little boy will be operated on for eight hours, so that the surgeons create a conduit for him, an eardrum and part of the ossicles of the ear.
“We will be able to see the result four to six months after the operation”, have thus specified the parents of the boy, who have already paid 5,000 euros just to block the price and the date of the operation, which will take place in May 2023. Thanks to their foundation, Life in stereo, they were able to collect no less than 40,000 euros in donations. After the operation, they intend to continue their fight to help children in the same situation as their son.