Fox News| by Brittany Kasko | August 25, 2023
Article Takeaways by DP News Staff:
- Nellie Rosales, an 11-month-old baby born with a rare hearing deformity, was able to hear her father’s voice for the first time with the help of a hearing device.
- Despite the heartwarming milestone, Nellie burst into tears upon hearing her father’s voice, which took him by surprise.
- The device she was fitted with bypasses her ear canal via transmitted sound vibrations from her skull, enabling her to hear sounds she couldn’t before.
A baby born with a rare hearing deformity was able to hear for the first time — and gave an unexpected reaction.
Nellie Rosales, an 11-month-old, was born with an ear deformity, which resulted in deafness in one ear.
The baby, from Fayetteville, North Carolina, has atresia, which is the absence or underdevelopment of the ear canal and middle ear structures.
She also has microtia, which is normally accompanied by atresia — meaning an ear deformity from birth which causes the ears to appear different, according to Texas Children’s Hospital, according to SWNS.
The baby was recently fitted for a hearing solution and then heard her dad Jacob’s voice for the first time — which greatly upset her.
Jacob Rosales is the 28-year-old dad of little Nellie; he told SWNS that seeing her hear him for the first time took his breath away.
“It brought sunshine to my heart, even if she was overwhelmed,” he said.
In the video above, Nellie Rosales can be seen getting fitted for the device — and then shortly after hearing her father, burst into tears.
The device allows her ear canal to be bypassed via a transmitted sound using vibrations from her skull, as SWNS reported.
Today, Jacob Rosales said his young daughter is loving her device — and that the difference in her hearing is “night and day.”
“The difference is clear — she can hear things from other rooms, and she understands what we say, too,” he said to SWNS.
Nellie Rosales now hears the dogs outside the house — and will stop to turn her head.
Jacob Rosales and his wife Sharon Hernandez are both members of the military — and are grateful for the health insurance that helped them provide the device to their daughter.
“The insurance we have is great, and the device costs $6,000,” he said.
Jacob Rosales told SWNS that as she’s grown a bit, she gets excited to put on her hearing device.
“She gets very excited to put it on,” he said of his growing daughter.