Ear Community Helps a Young Boy in Missouri Receive the Gift of Hearing…

Joseph Patterson, the proud recipient of a new BAHA through Ear Community, from Oticon Medical

Meet Joseph, an active seven year old boy in St. Charles, Missouri. Joseph was born with bilateral Microtia and Atresia in addition to being born with ASD. Right after Joseph’s first birthday, he had open heart surgery because of his ASD. Joseph’s lungs were also not fully developed as he was born four weeks premature. Joseph was on a jet ventilator for three weeks where his father Christopher was told that the ventilator he was on was “the most powerful ventilator a new born could be on.” Joseph spent many months in the NICU until he was ready to come home. Due to being on a ventilator for so long, Joseph developed an inversion to oral feeding and had to be put on a feeding tube. At the age of two years, Joseph was finally able to eat on his own.

As Joseph grew older, his parents were able to get him a trial BAHA over the years, but did not have insurance for covering a BAHA and because of additional medical needs, Joseph’s family was unable to purchase a BAHA for him to hear. Joseph’s father, Chris, found our Microtia and Atresia Support Group on Facebook and discovered that the group was part of a nonprofit organization called, Ear Community. On Tuesday, June 25^th, Joseph was fitted with a new Oticon Medical Ponto Pro. Joseph’s audiologist, Dr. B. Danielle Robertson of St. Joseph’s Institute for the Deaf, donated her time to help Joseph with his programming and the fitting of his new processor.  Joseph’s family is also working with another nonprofit organization to help him obtain a second Ponto Pro so he can hear through both ears. Thank you Dr. Robertson for helping give back to the Microtia and Atresia community by donating your time to help Joseph hear better with his new sound processor.

 While the Ear Community organization is proud to have donated Joseph’s new Oticon Medical Ponto Pro sound processor and soft band head band, none of this would have been possible without Oticon Medical donating this amazing hearing device to Ear Community to begin with. Oticon Medical believes in helping individuals with hearing loss so that they can live a better quality of life. Oticon Medical is a well respected international hearing device manufacturer that is a part of the “William Demant Group [which has] 100-plus years of experience in audiology and sound processing and established manufacturing and logistics infrastructure.”

Thank you to Alan Raffauf, Oticon Medical’s Vice President of Marketing, for donating this new sound processor and for wanting to give back to the Microtia and Atresia community through the Ear Community organization. Ear Community applauds the passion and effort that was involved with these individuals in helping another child hear better, so Joseph can hear the way life was intended.

Ear Community is always happy to help give back to the Microtia and Atresia community.

Sincerely,
Melissa Tumblin, Founder of Ear Community
and Ear Community Board of Directors