Baby Jakob heard Mama’s voice for the first time

Winzling Jakob had seen the daylight on June 29, 2024 via a caesarean section, six weeks early! A newborn, vulnerable, but full of life. But with the birth for the parents Jaqueline and Jakob E. – both 33 – from Maria Anzbach in the Wienerwald also a dramatic diagnosis: deafness on both sides. A fate that silently enveloped her child – and that of his father and father with uncertainty.

But then another story started, a story that does not deal with limits, but of possibilities. This is also due to a standard medical examination. “In Austria, the national newborn standard for screening the hearing is,” says Dr. Georg Mathias Sprinzl, head of the neck, nose and ear department of the University Clinic in St. Pölten. Who also took place with Little Jakob.

A medical “miracle”
A small test, a few minutes – and yet a life -changing moment. On August 30, just two months after his birth, it was clear after thorough investigation: the child would never hear his mother’s voice without medical help. But what a judgment in silence used to be in the past is today an invitation to medicine to have a medical “miracle”.

Team helped Little Jakob
Philipp Schörg, experienced audiologist, and Primarius Dr. Sprinzl, one of the best specialists in Europe in this area, took over Jakob’s case. “In the summer we received the agreements for the MRI. The operation was resolved for the spring that was spring. Our loved one was only two months old at the time. But we had never had doubts that the whole team made us empathetic to us from the first minute,” parents remembered.

Operation was successful
Now the time had come in March. Jakob was 8.5 months old when the specialists brought him to the operating room and Cochlea Implant-Small technical masterpieces that make it possible. The actual magical moment followed two weeks after the procedure: the activation of the language processor. “And then – a sound, a quake, a first surprise. A smile about Jakob’s face. Not perfect, not immediately – but he heard,” said the assistant doctor Dr. Claudia Hübl. And among all the new sounds there was one that he instinctively recognized, which calmed him, which gave him warmth: the voice of his mother.

Through the interaction of knowledge, technology and dedication, Jakob makes life possible without limitations. “We are infinitely grateful that our son was given the opportunity to hear tender”, Jakob and Jaqueline Shine.