Girl’s dressing-up dreams are helped by new hearing device
A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD West Yorkshire girl born with hearing problems can finally dress up as her favourite superheroes after getting a hi-tech hearing aid.
Lola McKnight had been forced to wear a prominent hearing device held in place by a headband since she was five months old.
She felt the device held her back from dressing up and looking like her favourite superheroes, the Hulk and Spiderman.
Now the Marvel-mad kid has been given a discreet, behind-the-ear aid that sticks to the skin, allowing her to become a superhero and giving her better hearing.
Mother Frankie, 33, said: “The advanced technology means she can hear better, which is great – but Lola is happier to lose the headband, it really ruined her street cred.
“She is a real tomboy, she loves watching shark videos with her dad, runs a boys-only dinosaur club and would not be seen in a skirt – but most of all she loves superheroes.”
Lola’s new device, delivered on December 10, is called an Adhear and it the cutting edge of hearing technology. They are perfect for children as they use bone conduction to increase hearing levels, do not require surgery and are simply stuck to the bone at the back of the ear.
Lola was born without a right ear and only had a flap of skin. Medics in Bradford knew she would have problems with her hearing and countless tests followed.
As a tiny baby she was diagnosed with grade three microtia, which literally translated from the Greek means “little ear”.
A spokesperson for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “Lola was getting fed up with having to wear a Softband hearing device so we thought it would be a good idea for her to trial the new Adhear device. Like the Softband, the Adhear vibrates the bone behind the ear to send sound directly to the inner ear but, unlike the Softband, is kept in place by an adhesive sticker.”