A mother shared a heartwarming video of the moment her four-year-old deaf son heard his family’s voices for the first time.
Christina Lenglin, from Ontario, Canada, posted the video of four-year-old Sawyer hearing for the first time to TikTok earlier this month.
Christina Lenglin’s son had been diagnosed with Pendred syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes early hearing loss in children.
In the footage she shared, the giggly young boy is scene after undergoing cochlear implant surgery in Ontario, Canada.
As the sound levels on his devices are turned up for the first time, the child begins to grin ear-to-ear, prompting his emotional mother to say, ‘That’s the biggest smile I’ve ever seen him do.’
Sawyer’s older sister Rosie says ‘hi’ to her brother in the video, who looked up in wonder as he heard her voice for the first time. The four-year-old old then began to smile widely and laugh as he realised what he was hearing.
As Sawyer’s family joined in on his infectious happiness and laughter, his mother asked: ‘Can you hear?’ while Rosie repeatedly told her younger brother: ‘I love you!’
The young boy can’t stop smiling and laughing as he begins to hear their love for the first time. Rosie asks her parents if the operation will change Sawyer’s life, and her mother says it will, ‘for the better, maybe.’
Sawyer, said Christina, ‘courageously braved the surgery and now happily tackles the journey to learn how to hear and understand English.’
‘Big sister Rosie, as you can see in the video, is beyond thrilled to welcome her brother to the world of hearing, and [we as] parents are also elated to have the magical opportunity to communicate verbally with [our] son,’ she wrote.
Both Sawyer, and his baby brother Tucker, were diagnosed with Pendred syndrome and though the Canadian government pays for the first set of cochlear implants for each child, replacements, which are needed every five years, are not covered by the country’s socialized medical system.
According to the family, cochlear implants for both boys will cost some $30,000 CAD – about $22,300 USD – every five years.
