Daxon Receives the Gift of Hearing Thanks to Cochlear Americas and The Ear Community Organization

Meet Daxon! Daxon is five years old and was born with unilateral microtia and aural atresia and lives in New Brunswick, Canada! He is one of the many children who was born during Covid-19. To Daxon’s parent’s surprise, he was born without his right ear. Even though Daxon is your typical five year old who is full of energy, he has been struggling with his hearing over the years.

When Daxon’s mom, Felicia, learned more about his conductive hearing loss, she realized he was struggling to hear. At the time, he was able to receive a loaner bone anchored hearing aid (Baha) from their audiologist when he was just a couple of years of old, but had to return the loaner device after so many months. While Felicia watched Daxon thrive with his loaner Baha, she knew she had to obtain one for him that could be his own. Daxon was then able to receive another loaner device for a few months when he was in preschool and she saw how he would ask for his Baha in the morning before school and how he had developed a routine wearing it. Felicia said “…he would ask for it and wear it proudly.” Felicia then began the process to obtain a Baha through her healthcare provider with her audiology department. To her surprise, she discovered that a Baha was going to cost nearly $6,000.00 CAD. She also learned that her insurance provider would not cover a hearing device for Daxon at this time and only covers (1) surgically implanted device in a lifetime in their province.

After realizing that Daxon wasn’t going to be able to obtain a Baha through their insurance, she and her audiologist, Dr. Chantale Melanson, found our Ear Community Organization with Ear Community’s Board of Directors voting to help Daxon receive the gift of hearing. On June 12th, 2025, Daxon was fitted with his new Baha 6 Max from Cochlear Americas donated through our Ear Community Organization. Thank you to Dr. Melanson of The Moncton Hospital for donating her time and services to program Daxon’s new Baha! Thank you to Daxon’s mom, Felicia, for endlessly advocating to help her son hear! A special thank you to Keesha Pfeiffer, Manager Health Policy Strategy and Advocacy, at Cochlear Americas, for helping Daxon receive this gift of hearing so he can #Hear Now And Always! This request to help Daxon means a lot to Keesha as her son also has microtia and atresia and she has helped our Ear Community Organization for many years with these requests to help children and adults hear! Thank you for helping us with this opportunity for Daxon! “Cochlear is the global leader in implantable hearing solutions, and has provided more than 750,000 implantable devices – more than any other company – helping people of all ages to hear and connect with life’s opportunities.” Since 2011, Cochlear Americas is a proud Platinum Sponsor to the Ear Community Organization, helping the microtia and atresia community. Thank you Cochlear Americas for being a leading company behind the hearing device technology that helps children like Luis benefit when it comes to restoring hearing loss! Children and adults with microtia and atresia can only benefit from the use of a bone conduction hearing device because of specific related conductive hearing loss.

Thank you to everyone for coming together to help Daxon hear his best and to help make hearing possible for him because of the amazing advocates in his corner! We are happy for Daxon to be able to hear so much better! Daxon sure is a cutie! Here are some great pictures from his fitting!

Melissa Tumblin
Founder – Executive Director
Ear Community