Ear Community is thankful for helping a little boy in China hear better during this Thanksgiving holiday

Guoyiyang, BMA, twin boy who lives in China

Meet little Guoyiyang from China, a handsome little three year old twin boy who was born with Bilateral Microtia and Atresia. Yiyang hasn’t been able to hear well since birth due to having Atresia in both ears. Yiyang’s family does not have health coverage and was unable to afford a hearing device for him. Mr. Guotao, Yiyang’s father, found Ear Community online and inquired about our foundation helping his son. Since September, through a series of e-mail exchanges between Yiyang’s family and Ear Community, along with the help of translation, Ear Community was able to find a way to help Yiyang hear the sounds of life.

On October 15, 2013, with the help of many individuals coming together to help little Guoyiyang hear better, Yiyang was fitted with his new Oticon Medical Ponto Pro processor. Alan Raffauf, Vice President of Oticon Medical US, helped find a way to put Melissa Tumblin, Founder of Ear Community, in touch with a business colleague in China, Martin Moller, a Business Director for Oticon China. Martin was able to obtain help from Scott Sun, also of Oticon China, where Scott helped translate and communicate with the family and Yiyang’s doctor, Dr. Qin Zhaobing. In addition to everyone coming together in China and the United States to help Yiyang, it was a joyous day for everyone.  Even Dr. Qin’s ENT team enjoyed not only getting to help little Yiyang, but they also were given the opportunity to learn more about bone conduction hearing devices and the chance to try a BAHA/OID on (pictured below).

Martin Moller stated that prior to Yiyang being fitted with a Ponto Pro processor, Yiyang’s family explained “that he only responded to very loud sounds and was only able to say “baba” and “mama. With the Ponto Pro, Yiyang instantly responded to soft whispers [during his fitting in the ENT office] and sounds as well as the many other sounds around him.” It was shared that Yiyang also chose the ladybird sticker for his new Ponto Pro to make it special and to personalize his hearing device. “It is always a miracle to see a child hear the sounds of life when being introduced to an assisted hearing device for the first time and we are happy we could help,” says Melissa Tumblin, Founder of Ear Community. Ear Community would like to thank the number of individuals who came together  to help little Yiyang have a brighter future, especially just in time for the holidays and the new year coming around the corner. Thank you also to Dr. Qin Zhaobing for donating her time and services to helping fit and program Yiyang’s new processor.

While the Ear Community organization is proud to have donated Yiyang’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.”  A very special thank you to Alan Raffauf of Oticon Medical for donating hearing devices to Ear Community.

While the United States holiday, Thanksgiving, may not be celebrated in China, Ear Community can proudly say that as a charity organization, we are thankful this holiday season for being able to help Yiyang. We hope you hear much better from this day forward….all of us at Ear Community. Here are some photos of Yiyang’s special day.

Thank you,
Melissa Tumblin, Founder of Ear Community
and Ear Community Board Members