We desperately need to raise the funds needed to get us on the path to the first implant and we therefore kindly asking everyone to help us as much as possible to reach this goal and help us get on the path to give our son the gift of hearing again!
A huge THANK YOU to the Lister Presbyterian Health Trust for the great blessing of a $4,000.00 donation towards Matthew's new hearing aids. We truly appreciate this huge gift so much.
Lister Presbyterian Health Trust, may God bless your organization in the future to allow you to bless more families in need!
STEP 1
Firstly we need to get Matthew an MRI with GA. We are currently waiting for an appointment at the University of Auckland for an appointment as they only do MRIs with GA one day a month. They have indicated that we might be able to get an appointment in June, if not we will only be able to be helped in July 2021. No other hospital or radiology institution is able to assist us with an MRI with GA for a 5-year-old. This MRI will possibly assist the ENT specialist, Dr. Colin Brown, to determine what is causing Matthew's hearing loss.
STEP 2
Matthew's immediate need is to get new hearing aids and a Rodger system to support him when he goes to school. The current hearing aids that he is using our Audiologist, Chris Radford at Dilworth Audiology, has been so kind to source and borrow to us until we are able to afford new hearing aids for Matthew. These hearing aids are older technology and just assist Matthew in hearing normally. These hearing aids will be donated to a person in a similar potion as Matthew once Matthew gets his cochlear implants.
STEP 3
Following the MRI we will hopefully be able to determine what is causing the hearing loss and then also hopefully be able to stop the deterioration. However, the ENT, Dr. Colin Brown, has stated that in his experience we will most likely not be able to stop the deterioration and Matthew will need to be fitted with cochlear implants. Dr. Colin Brown has recommended not to do both implants at the same time as this will cause major stress on Matthew and most likely be too much of a mental strain for Matthew to bear because Matthew has been able to hear and the switching on of the cochlear implant only happens over a period of 6 to 8 weeks.
STEP 4
Following the MRI and the first cochlear implant the ENT, Dr. Colin Brown, will see how the development goes and decide when or if the second operation will be. As we still have a far way to go the second cochlear implant will most likely only be needed within the next 6 to 12 months.
Thank you so much for the PayPal donations we have received this week:
Christoph Schenker from Germany $180
Martin and Theresa Schenker from Germany $180
Wangchuk Lassoppa-knoll from Germany $106
Andrè Stoppelkötter from Germany $155
Thomas Trojak $20
We are truly blessed by your generosity!
Thank you so much for the PayPal Donations that we received this week:
Jakob Waterkamp from Germany $500.00
Silvia from Germany $80.00
We are truly blessed by your generosity.
We will also need to raise additional funds to have the cochlear implants set up after they have been implanted which can take up to 3 weeks to be fully functional.
