HEAR TO HELP
IT’S BEEN A ROCKY START FOR THE TOT, BUT HE’S HAD SOME FAMOUS HELP!
KISS frontman Paul Stanley’s advice to little Felix Taito
Little Felix Taito has the spirit of a rock star. At three years old, his long eyelashes and mischievous grin are the first things you see as he bounds up confidently to tell you his name.
As he sings to himself while playing with his train set, his mum Seleta looks on smiling.
“It’s quite weird,” she reveals, “out of our three kids, I would say that Felix is the most musical! He’s the one that sings the most.”
His dad David (39) adds, “He’s really adventurous and wants to give anything a go. Nothing can stop him from doing anything – his confidence is just amazing.”
The astonishing fact about this is that Felix was born with the conditions microtia and atresia, which mean Felix’s ear is not completely developed and his ear canal is also closed. It’s a congenital deformity which results in him being profoundly deaf on his right side.
Seleta (37) remembers the day he was born well. It was her and husband David’s third baby – she’d had a smooth pregnancy and was expecting an easy birth.
“He came out and the midwife saw it first,” she tells. “She told me to have a look at his ear. It obviously wasn’t formed and was all closed up. So that was a bit of a shock! When you’re pregnant, you’re just not prepared for anything like that.”
It didn’t help that the midwives and nurses on the ward at the time hadn’t seen a condition like this before, she continues.
“That first 24 hours was a bit nerve-wracking,” she admits as she tells how she began to
google any words that matched Felix’s ear while still in her hospital bed. Combing her way through all of the information, she discovered that the famous guitarist and singer with rock band KISS, Paul
Stanley, suffered from a condition called microtia.
“It was quite comforting to know that someone as successful as Paul Stanley, who has a career where he relies on sound, had the condition and didn’t seem to have any barriers,” she says, telling how the paediatrician confirmed Felix had the same thing.
The Taitos learned that KISS would be touring New Zealand not long after Felix’s birth and knew they just had to meet the frontman. “I wanted them to have a photo together so if
Felix ever had any doubts, he could see that anything was possible,” Seleta remembers. And amazingly, they managed to be introduced!
“Even more amazing was the advice he gave us,” Seleta adds smiling. “We were so worried through this journey. And his advice was, the best thing you can do for them is to let them know you love them, and you'll always be there for them and support them no matter what.”
It hasn’t been an easy journey for the family. With no history of this condition in either of Seleta and David’s families, they had little idea where to get the help their son might need.
“Not having the knowledge and information was the most worrying part,” says Seleta. “We didn’t know if this was going to affect his learning and looking different to other kids, what impact would that have?”
Thankfully, the parents learned of The Hearing House, a charity that provides support and services for hearingimpaired children and adults.
“It was the first time that I came across an organisation that just accepted us,” tells the doting mum. “We had a son that needed a little bit of help, and they welcomed us and helped us with answers. I learned little things like making sure background noise was at a minimum, which we wouldn’t have known, so he can focus.”
David says the work his wife has put into finding all the solutions for their son is simply awe-inspiring.
“It’s a lot of work, I take my hat off to her,” he says proudly. “She’s the backbone of everything, and I’m just the muscle that comes in behind and does the heavy lifting.”
This teamwork is evident in the way Felix’s siblings, Xavier (9) and Mackenzie (6), protect and care for their little brother.
“When the kids were little and would ask what was wrong with Felix’s ear, we used the movie Finding Nemo to explain it to them,” tells Seleta. “Just like Nemo’s lucky fin, which was smaller than normal, he could still do everything that all the other fish could do. And that’s what we explained about Felix – he has a lucky ear! Although it’s smaller and he can’t hear as well, he can still do all the things you guys can do. He’s recently started calling it his lucky ear.”
Just like clockwork, Felix points to his right ear as his mum is talking, with a smile on his face.
The family is currently fundraising to take Felix to the US for reconstructive surgery which isn’t available in NZ, to give him a chance to hear before all hope is lost. And they also want to do their bit for
The Hearing House, who have helped their family immensely.
It’s clear these parents will do anything for their beloved boy.
“He loves his superheroes at the moment,” David says grinning. “And he’s one himself, so that’s pretty cool.”