The battle with diagnoses

Three-year-old Nikita Badikov needs cochlear implantation of the second ear. To operate Nikita it is necessary before the beginning of summer, before his next operation on heart. Even before the birth of Nikita, looking at the ultrasound, as the child develops, the doctor said to Katya: there are suspicions of a malformation of the baby's heart. And yet Katia sincerely believed that Nikita's heart would develop, and the son would be born healthy, however... When the boy was born, the doctors' fears were confirmed: Nikita was diagnosed with the most complicated heart disease. On the first day of life, the child was operated on, three months later - again, and a month later - in the third. Half a year the baby lay in the intensive care center of the cardiac center in extremely serious condition.

Six months later, Nikita was discharged from the cardiology center with a tracheostomy (a breathing tube) in the neck, which doctors promised to remove later. To the great joy of his relatives, the boy finally got home; like all kids, he learned to crawl and walk, and Katya gradually came to her senses from what she had experienced in intensive care. Suddenly - a new blow! After that memorable call to a friend, Katya rushed to the doctors to check her son's hearing and was intimidated by another complicated diagnosis: Nikita - bilateral sensorineural hearing loss of the fourth degree. At the same time, doctors did not exclude that the child could indeed lose his hearing during intensive antibiotic therapy, including those with ototoxic effect. Antibiotics helped to save Nikita's life, but gave a complication by ear.

The kid was prescribed the strongest hearing aids, however, for six months of wearing them, he never reacted to the speech, neither active sessions with the faculty nor the daily efforts of my mother helped. There was only one hope - for auditory implants, with a similar diagnosis they give a 100% positive effect. According to the program of the goverment, which provides children with free implants, about a hundred children operate in Ukraine every year, Katya and Nikita are in line at number 341: they had no chance to undergo surgery for a year. However, they went to the ENT Institute to meet: realizing that Nikita was a non-standard patient, the operation on the first ear was done out of turn.

True, the baby is poorly oriented in space, can not determine where the sound comes from. When the car goes, it starts spinning on the spot, looking for a source of noise, and it's dangerous. Also, it is difficult for him to be in a noisy crowd with one eye, this is disorienting and gives a big load to the children's brain. To solve these problems, Nikita needs to operate the second ear, but it is impossible to do it free of charge in Ukraine: the state program grants the right of free implantation only once.

And the operation to implant a second cochlear implant is extremely important before the beginning of the summer. In June - July, Nikita should conduct another planned heart operation, after which the boy will be able to remove the tracheostomy - a tube that supports its fragile trachea. It is prematurely impossible to remove the tracheostomy, so during the next operations (in the ear and in the heart) the boy will be reinstalled - otherwise it is impossible to intubate his lungs.
Because of the tracheostomy Nikita can not begin to talk, and he really wants to! When he experiences strong emotions: he rejoices at the papa-mom, rushes to pet a dog or asks to play with a typewriter, he tries to pronounce sounds, but it requires a lot of effort from him! But as soon as the doctors remove the tracheostomy, Nikita will surely learn how to speak! However, this will happen only after absolutely all planned operations.

The Badikov family can not collect such a large amount alone for the treatment of a child, but they are sure: despite all the difficulties, their son will certainly hear, breathe freely and speak. Nikita is a clever, mischievous and life-loving child and will not be different from other children after treatment. But you need to hurry! Cochlear implantation is important to do before the summer!

We hope that the story of Nikita, who fights for his health and wins, touched you, and you will respond to help him.

Name: Badikov Nikita, 25.12.2014

City: Vorzel, Kiev region

Diagnosis: bilateral sensorineural hearing loss of the fourth degree