Good Morning Angels: Helping Alexander Hear
With the help of Annique Health and Beauty as well as Good Morning Angels, 4 year old Alexander will be able to hear a lot better. Alexander was born with an underdeveloped ear and struggles to hear. He is in need of an operation that can restore the inside part of his ear so that he can hear.
GOOD MORNING ANGELS 17 FEBRUARY 2016 (ALEXANDER/ANNIQUE)
Helping little Alexander hear
REQUEST FOR: Little Alexander and his parents Liahne and Gerrit Jooste
ANGEL: Ronel van Heerden on behalf of Annique Health and Beauty
SPONSORING: Annique Health and Beauty will help Alexander's parents with a donation of R15 000,00 to pay the R8 800,00 co-payment with the medical aid for the device that could help Alexander hear and other expenses related to his operation and treatment.
BACKGROUND: 4-year old Alexander is the youngest of three children and his parents’ Lihane and Gerrit’s only son. He is full of energy and is looking forward to celebrating his 5th birthday at the end of February. Alexander’s life could change a lot before then … for the better. He was born with an underdeveloped left ear – in fact, he has no middle ear and no outer ear. He has the opportunity to have an operation to fix the inside part of his ear, in a special operation within the next two weeks. The medical aid covers most of the R200 000,00 procedure … however, there is an amount of R8 800,00 that the family needs to pay. It doesn’t seem like much, but if they don’t come up with it within the next week, Alexander may have to wait many more months to have his ear fixed and his life changed.
ORIGINAL REQUEST:
Hi you guys,
Firstly, thank you for the great show, what a pleasure as a listener to be part of the great work you do (even if it is just to support Jacaranda in heart and soul).
Today, we would like to place a request for our son Alexander Jooste, you will note that my email is a desperate plight for assistance as time is of the essence here.
Alex was born with unilateral Microtia Atresia (left side), which means he was born without a fully developed ear, no internal ear canal, which subsequently caused partial deafness.
He currently has 26% hearing in his affected ear. The problem with this type of deafness (one sided) is that it affects balancing, localizing sound and over stimulation of visual perception and obviously physical and emotional insecurity, unfortunately if you do not “look” like other children you do get teased… and to be asked by your son every day, mommy, when can I hear and get a new ear.. It’s heart breaking!
We have inquired about various options and was advised by our ENT that Alex should have a Bone Bridge implant... in December 2015 we had the CT scan done to see if his skull is thick enough for the implant (as a whole is drilled into the skull where the implant is placed and attached too with screws etc.), Dr. Mol at the time was not convinced that Alex should have surgery now and even though we were disappointed as we would probably have to wait a further 3 years for the surgery, we obviously took his judgement as the right decision.
Dr. Mol works with Prof. Frenzel who is a specialist ENT and Reconstructive Surgeon in Germany, Prof. Frenzel is currently in SA to do surgery for children with the same defect as Alex and he had a chance to look at the scans and he however thinks that Alex is a perfect candidate for the surgery NOW!!! Prof. Frenzel is flying back to Germany end of February, and even though we are absolutely delighted and overwhelmed, obviously this was not planned and you are immediately blown away with how, when and where???
I called Medel (makers of the Bone Bridge devise) this morning, fortunately we do have a medical aid, and I was advised that the medical aid will cover most of the cost towards the device, but that we will have a co-payment of R 8 800.00.. Which we did not plan for and do not know where to get at this stage.
As you can see we are currently playing for time, we are seeing Dr. Mol Wednesday next week 17/02/2016 and I need to be able to tell him to proceed or not, obviously the sooner the R 8 800.00 can be paid to Medel the sooner the surgery can take place. Alex also has to go for audiology tests before the surgery, in order to motivate with the medical aid and get authorization.
I hope and pray in my heart that someone can find it in their heart to help this little angel with this request, his only wish is too be able to hear like other children.
Thank you.
Liahne and Gerrit Jooste
Take a listen to Alexander's mother speak about the operation needed as well as what Alexander wants: