The mother of a Dundee youngster who is now starting to hear thanks to pioneering surgery said she burst into tears when he first turned round at the sound of his dad’s voice.
Oliver Bosch returned from Italy last week where he had the latest set of electrodes in his hearing implant switched on. Oliver can now recognise sounds from toy instruments, including a drum and xylophone.
Mum Jemma said she and husband Ben were “amazed” at their son’s progress since the initial operation five weeks ago.
Jemma said: “On Thursday my husband came home from work and as soon as he came through the door he said ‘Oliver’ and he turned immediately to look at Ben.
“That was fantastic. It was a burst into tears moment, just thinking it had all been worth it.”
Oliver’s parents had to raise £60,000 to pay for a hearing implant, which fitted 12 electrodes deep inside his brain to serve as auditory nerves.
Oliver was born without auditory nerves and the pioneering operation was needed to fit the hearing device on to his brain stem.
Jemma said: “He is associating certain noises with things. We have been banging his little drum in front of him and he is used to it.
“Now, if we bang it behind him he looks for it, because he knows what he is looking for. It is just a case of training him on certain things. He also has bells and a xylophone and he looks for them and knows the difference.”
The latest trip to Verona saw Oliver’s medical team fine-tuning the electrodes and testing Oliver’s reaction to sounds at different frequencies.
Jemma said: “They retested him and we had to walk him about for an hour and see how he was with traffic noise and things like that.
“They have instruments that are tuned to specific frequencies like a whistle, a drum and a football rattle and he turned for every one of them. It was just great.
“The team in Italy are overwhelmed with how well he is doing. They said for five weeks post switch-on he is doing fantastically well.”
Jemma said that the trip back to Italy was a “big trek” for Oliver, who will also return there in July.
She said: “There’s a lot of waiting about in airports and you think ‘are we doing the right thing?’ It’s a lot for him. Then you see that moment when he turns, and you think, yes, it has all been worth it.”
Jemma said Oliver is enjoying his new-found celebrity status around Dundee,
She said: “Everybody comes up and claps behind his head to try and get him to turn around. He has also started waving at everyone, We are absolutely amazed at how well he is doing. We thought it would have taken a lot longer than this.”
Jemma also revealed that Oliver’s orthopaedic consultant is hopeful that the youngster will be walking within the next six months or so.
The next fundraising drive will be to raise £20,000 for a specialist audio-verbal speech therapy camp in Los Angeles next year
Jemma said: “We will be hosting a thank-you party on June 8 for people who have given their time or money, then on June 29 we are having a fire and ice walk at Dundee’s Thomson Park in conjunction with the Blake McMillan Trust, which will be a a big family fun day.”
Donations to the appeal can be made at www.justgiving.com/Theoliverboschappeal.