Gift of Hearing for Elroi
Donation protected
We are raising funds to allow our 3-year old profoundly deaf child to have a cochlear implant surgery as soon as possible as recommended by ENT specialist. This will be Elroi’s 5th surgery in his young life, after having been diagnosed with CHARGE syndrome (explained below) not too long after birth. Every amount you can give is utterly appreciated to help us give our Elroi the gift of hearing (and consequently speech)! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Here’s a background into Elroi’s few years on God’s beautiful earth so far.
Our Miracle baby Elroi was born on the 29th of January 2015. He was born without opened nostrils which impeded his ability to breathe, a condition the doctors termed as Bilateral Choanal Atresia. Since babies are obligatory nose breathers he was not able to compensate by breathing through his mouth. At only a few minutes old, he experienced his first of three pulmonary cardiac arrests and had to be resuscitated, and several pinches administered just so he could stay alive. It was scary as a parent to see the frail body of our supposed bundle of joy go through this life threatening experience; his color would turn pink when he cried, meaning he had sufficient oxygen in his body, to an eerie purple when his mouth was closed, which meant he was oxygen-deficient. Elroi was rushed to the major teaching hospital in Ghana called Korle Bu Teaching Hospital as a matter of urgency, where a life-saving operation of perforating the nasal cavity was performed.
This was not to be the only time he would go under the knife. Elroi has had other operations since this first one, including removal of the stents, and a heart surgery at five months to close an open duct.
To compound issues, Elroi was later diagnosed to be profoundly deaf in both ears which led to another diagnosis of CHARGE syndrome. This is known to occur only in 1 in every 10,000 births. It is a complex combination of medical conditions which includes Coloboma, heart defects, choanal atresia, growth retardation, genital abnormalities, and ear abnormalities (severe to profound sensoneural hearing loss in both ears)
After several trials and speech therapy with two fitted hearing aids, the doctors in Ghana concluded that a cochlear implant would be the best solution in aiding him to hear.
Unfortunately this procedure is not done in our homeland Ghana, hence our doctor suggested Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) in Columbus, Ohio. NCH requested to redo all the assessments to ascertain if truly our son was eligible for the Cochlear implants. This reassessment came at a cost of $6,000 which we paid in full prior to the tests getting done. After the various evaluations were conducted it was confirmed that Elroi is indeed a candidate for a cochlear implant in order for him to have the gift of hearing. With hearing, Elroi will be able to speak as these two essential life skills are interdependent in Elroi’s case.
Now..to get the cochlear implant surgery done comes with a price tag of $50,000. The Nationwide Children’s Hospital has requested payment in full before surgery can be done, and as per the Cochlear Implant Specialist we met with, the surgery needs to be done as soon as possible…the further we delay the further Elroi’s speech development is impacted negatively. A lot has been committed so far to get us to this stage and your benevolence will be greatly appreciated to give our little miracle the needed hearing required to complete his full cycle development. Any amount will be greatly appreciated.
Here’s a background into Elroi’s few years on God’s beautiful earth so far.
Our Miracle baby Elroi was born on the 29th of January 2015. He was born without opened nostrils which impeded his ability to breathe, a condition the doctors termed as Bilateral Choanal Atresia. Since babies are obligatory nose breathers he was not able to compensate by breathing through his mouth. At only a few minutes old, he experienced his first of three pulmonary cardiac arrests and had to be resuscitated, and several pinches administered just so he could stay alive. It was scary as a parent to see the frail body of our supposed bundle of joy go through this life threatening experience; his color would turn pink when he cried, meaning he had sufficient oxygen in his body, to an eerie purple when his mouth was closed, which meant he was oxygen-deficient. Elroi was rushed to the major teaching hospital in Ghana called Korle Bu Teaching Hospital as a matter of urgency, where a life-saving operation of perforating the nasal cavity was performed.
This was not to be the only time he would go under the knife. Elroi has had other operations since this first one, including removal of the stents, and a heart surgery at five months to close an open duct.
To compound issues, Elroi was later diagnosed to be profoundly deaf in both ears which led to another diagnosis of CHARGE syndrome. This is known to occur only in 1 in every 10,000 births. It is a complex combination of medical conditions which includes Coloboma, heart defects, choanal atresia, growth retardation, genital abnormalities, and ear abnormalities (severe to profound sensoneural hearing loss in both ears)
After several trials and speech therapy with two fitted hearing aids, the doctors in Ghana concluded that a cochlear implant would be the best solution in aiding him to hear.
Unfortunately this procedure is not done in our homeland Ghana, hence our doctor suggested Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) in Columbus, Ohio. NCH requested to redo all the assessments to ascertain if truly our son was eligible for the Cochlear implants. This reassessment came at a cost of $6,000 which we paid in full prior to the tests getting done. After the various evaluations were conducted it was confirmed that Elroi is indeed a candidate for a cochlear implant in order for him to have the gift of hearing. With hearing, Elroi will be able to speak as these two essential life skills are interdependent in Elroi’s case.
Now..to get the cochlear implant surgery done comes with a price tag of $50,000. The Nationwide Children’s Hospital has requested payment in full before surgery can be done, and as per the Cochlear Implant Specialist we met with, the surgery needs to be done as soon as possible…the further we delay the further Elroi’s speech development is impacted negatively. A lot has been committed so far to get us to this stage and your benevolence will be greatly appreciated to give our little miracle the needed hearing required to complete his full cycle development. Any amount will be greatly appreciated.
Organizer and beneficiary
Naya Sad
Organizer
Westerville, OH
Ruth Larbi
Beneficiary
