IT was a heart-rending moment when Evie Small began to hear for the first time.

Evie Small and her mum Emily

The two-year-old was given a ‘bionic ear’ after pioneering surgery in Italy. A rare condition meant she had heard no sounds at all since birth.

So when her new device was first switched on, it was tense. Mum Emily and dad David held their breath to see if she would respond to a drumbeat behind her. And when her head turned, they were genuinely overwhelmed.

Since then, she’s been learning how to talk, and the day she said “Mama” for the first time is also etched on Emily’s memory.
Now they are thanking fellow worshippers from Holy Trinity Church, Blendworth, in Hampshire, and many other friends and family members who helped raise almost £50,000 to pay for the operation and follow-up visits to Italy.

“To see her little head turn to noise was absolutely breathtaking, the most incredible thing I had ever witnessed,” said Emily. “I was too emotional to cry, I was absolutely speechless.

“I can’t put into words how I feel when I see Evie hear a sound she’s never heard before, or play over and over again with a toy that makes a noise, or how proud I feel when she stands on the pew next to me at Blendworth and tries to sing along to the hymns, or how my heart skips a beat when she makes her own sounds. Words just do not suffice. I am amazed, enthralled, intrigued, blessed, and humbled by our little Evie.

“We’ve felt really held by God in all of this. We’ve never been alone, we’ve always felt totally surrounded by people’s prayers. While we were in Italy, the nuns from the Sisters of Bethany in Southsea and many others were emailing us to let us know they were praying.

“And how do I put into words the incredible gratitude we feel to so many people who have helped make this a possibility? People who have made personal sacrifices for our baby, shaving off their hair, cycling to France or running two marathons on a treadmill. Richard Howell from church, who is 74, played 110 holes of golf to raise money for us.

“People who don’t know her have put themselves through physical pain for her. We are so grateful for those people who have raised money through work, sent cheques in the post, and those tireless angels who have held us in their prayers and thoughts.”

Emily particularly remembers sitting in the carol concert at in St John’s RC Cathedral at Christmas 2011, with tears streaming down her face as she realised her daughter couldn’t hear the heavenly music sung by the choir. She felt a real sense of loss. When they returned to the same candelit concert last Christmas there were tears of joy and gratitude, as Evie was able to hear the soaring voices.

Evie was born in September 2010 without any hearing nerves between her ears and her brain, which meant she couldn’t hear a sound – like having a stereo and speakers, but without any cables to connect them.

The only way she would hear was by an auditory brainstem implant, which meant a six-hour operation to insert a tiny electrical device into the part of the brain that processes hearing. Only a few specialist surgeons in the world can do this, and it needed to happen before she was two, as the brain loses its flexibility as the child gets older.

The family therefore faced a race against time to make sure the surgery happened in time. They raised enough money for the operation to be performed last summer in Verona. Emily, David and their other children Harrison, now 13, Amelia, 12, Matthew, 11, and Edward, 8, rented an apartment near the hospital to be close by for the six-hour operation and six weeks of recovery.

Evie only needed four of the 12 electrodes to work to be able to hear, but all 12 now work. And the family have been back twice for minor adjustments to be made. She can now hear sounds as quiet as 55 decibels, which means she can hear speech. She doesn’t sleep with her processor in, and therefore can’t hear when she wakes up each day. But once it is fitted, her babbling starts.  

“It used to be the case that I wouldn’t know if Evie was in a room as she was so quiet but now you can hear her humming and babbling away to herself as she plays – it’s so lovely to hear,” said Emily.

“Evie is quite musical in her noises and frequently copies the pitch of our words rather than the actual sound the word makes – this is new territory for us and to a large extent those working with her as it was previously believed that she would not be able to interpret pitch. Coming from a musical family, this literally is music to our ears!”

She attends specialist speech therapy sessions at Auditory Verbal UK in Oxford, receives visits from a teacher for the deaf, and also goes to a specialist nursery for deaf children at the Elizabeth Foundation in Portsmouth twice a week. She has learnt some sign language alongside her verbal skills. For more information, or to make a donation, see www.hopeforhearing.co.uk.