WATCH ABOVE: After months of fighting for the surgery, a toddler heard her parents voice for the first time Monday after doctors turned on her cochlear implants. Emily Spain reports.
TORONTO – A toddler in North Carolina heard her mother and father’s voices for the very first time this week after undergoing a $50,000 surgery that wasn’t covered by insurance.
Laken and Rowan Westbrook, twins, were born premature at 33 weeks on Dec. 15, 2013. Rowan struggled at first but quickly recovered while Laken underwent five surgeries in the first four months of her life, and then at six months, her parents discovered that she couldn’t hear.
“We went in for the ABR test and right after she told us that she had severe to profound hearing loss in both ears,” a GoFundMe post said.
The Westbrooks were told cochlear implants might be an option — and were vital if their daughter was going to learn sounds and develop speech at a young age — but soon discovered their insurance would not cover the estimated $50,000 cost.
“They’re the most crucial years, there’s all kinds of research that supports auditory stimulation as early as possible for the purpose of speech and language development,” teacher Beth Whitfield explained.
“I have never pushed so hard and been the biggest cheerleader for anybody as I am her. I will do anything for her,” mother Stacy Westbrook told WFMY.
A family friend turned to crowdfunding to help reduce the total cost of the operation. One hundred and seventy two donations were made to a GoFundMe account over three months to raise $17,260 — at the time of this writing — just shy of the required $20,000 down payment needed.
“I don’t know that we would have ever done it ourselves. To see how that worked, it was amazing,” Laken’s father, Gary, added. “There’s no way words can show our gratitude.”
Doctors at the UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill turned on Laken’s implants Monday morning. The Westbrooks say they noticed an immediate improvement.
“Laken would hold eye contact with us when talking to her which she has never really done!” they wrote in a Facebook update.
Laken will now have to take some time as her auditory nerve learns and adjusts to the new signals sent by the implants. She may even be able to have a telephone conversation in the future, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
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