Help to hear mother's voice!

Little Vanya was a long-awaited child and became a great joy for his daddy and mommy. However, since first days Vanya’s parents had to fight for the lives of their son and little twin sister Polina. Their babies were prematurely born with serious birth defects. Vanya has undergone complicated brain surgery. To make things worse, this little pumpkin is facing now a new scorching ordeal – Vanya was diagnosed with stage four sensorineural hearing loss.

Alexander and Tatiana Babich were forced to move to Zaporizhzhia from the Luhansk region in 2014 when the war broke out in Eastern Ukraine. A new hometown unexpectedly blessed this family with happy news: Tatiana finally became pregnant. The happy couple was looking forward to welcoming twin babies!

However, they soon had to face cruel fortune. Long before the planned delivery when Tatiana was only 27 weeks pregnant, she suddenly had premature labor. Their little boy Vanya was born weighing 1,100 grams and little sister Polina only 1,050 grams. Since the babies were born preterm, their lungs could not open. They had to spend their first three months of life in the intensive care unit on artificial ventilation to the lungs.The following month and a half they were patients of the neonatal pathology department. Vanya’s and Polina’s parents recall with horror everything they had to go through. Sleepless nights and constant fear for their precious and long-awaited bundles of joy.

When Vanya was 1,5 months old due to his hydrocephalus he underwent ventriculoperitoneal shunt. Vanya also suffers from cardiac failure – stage two pulmonary artery stenosis. Both siblings are diagnosed with bronchopulmonary dysplasia and retinopathy of prematurity. These parents are real warriors who have been fighting for life and health of their children since their first breaths. Their children have regular massages and physical therapy. There is still a long journey to recovery, so Vanya and Polina will be eventually able to catch up with their peers.

When it seemed that the worst thing was left behind, a new trouble came into the family of Alexander and Tatiana. During the next survey, it turned out that Ivanco does not hear. A survey conducted in Kyiv confirmed the terrible diagnosis: sensorineural deafness is 4 degrees. Attempts to help the child to hear from the hearing aid did not give results. And budget and expensive overseas devices will not help Vanya to hear. In this situation, the child will not learn to understand the language, the more talk. In order for Vanya to hear, a special complicated operation is required - cochlear implantation. This is a high-tech and expensive medical operation. Its cost is 29,000 euros.

In August 2015, the Babich family became in turn in the Kolomyysky Institute for a free implant receipt, they were 135th in the list. However, in late July 2017, parents were told that they would receive a free implant! On August 2, the boy was successfully operated, but now Ivan needs a long-term hearing-speech rehabilitation (from 3 to 7 years old). Instead, the child does not sit well, holds back weakly, does not walk and has a hypotonic muscle back.

Parents of the children ask kind people to provide possible help for the rehabilitation of the child, to give the little Ivan a habitual for each of us the joy of hearing the sounds of the world, and the most important thing in every person's happiness is to hear the voice of his mother's mother! 

Name: Ivan Babic, 05.01.2015

City: Zaporozhye

Diagnosis: double-sided sensorineural hearing loss of profound degree/deafness