Abandoned baby: Pro bono operation restores her lost hearing

Baby Grace, who was found abandoned in rubble on a building site last year, has laughed for the first time and is starting to crawl after having grommets to help resolve her hearing difficulties.

“Grace was named by the Netcare Pretoria East Hospital team who treated her when she was found on a cold and rainy day by a construction worker, crying under a pile of rubble,” said Elmari Murphy, who takes care of Grace at the House of Kindness, a temporary safe house.

Dr Heinrich du Toit, a paediatrician practising at the hospital, recalled that Grace was “a tiny girl” when she was found and brought to the hospital.

Working her way into hearts

“Estimating her age was not straightforward, as it appeared Grace may have been born prematurely at around 36 weeks, perhaps a month earlier.”

Baby Grace remained in the hospital for over a week for tests, during which time the doctors and nurses grew extremely fond of her.

On the day she was discharged into Murphy’s care through Child Welfare Groenkloof, everyone involved in her care came to bid her farewell.

Tests revealed Baby Grace had a condition affecting her overall health that required specialised treatment as her best prospect.

As usual, Murphy and her husband leapt into action, organising a fundraising raffle with one of their sheep as a prize.

With the support of the community, health care practitioners and the hospital pharmacy, Grace was able to have the specialised medication she needed to overcome the illness.

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Amanda Bester, a diagnostic audiologist who was part of the multidisciplinary team caring for Grace, said repeated attempts to test the baby’s hearing were unsuccessful as Grace had recurring middle-ear infections.

“A diagnostic hearing test confirmed that Grace’s nerves for the brain to experience sound were working perfectly, and this indicated that her moderate hearing loss was only due to chronic ear infections,” Bester said.

Murphy recalled that even with prescribed antibiotics, Grace cried at night, which she attributed to earache. She was also developmentally delayed, even though Murphy placed an emphasis on neuro-stimulation techniques to support early childhood development.

The Netcare Foundation, which works closely with the nongovernmental organisation Hi Hopes under the stewardship of Prof Claudine Storbeck, is acutely aware of the importance of ensuring early hearing and its effect on speech and neurodevelopment and so supporting the baby was an easy decision.

Netcare has a state-of-the-art programme in which all babies born in its facilities are afforded the opportunity to have their hearing tested. Ear, nose and throat surgeon Dr Quintus De Flamingh examined Grace and determined that her only viable treatment option was to have grommets placed in both ears. Grommets are small tubes that allow liquid to drain from the ear, helping to prevent ear infections.

“Dr De Flamingh suggested grommets for Grace, but how would we afford this surgical procedure on top of our other expenses? Then yet again, the Netcare Foundation and the doctors came to Grace’s rescue and they arranged to cover the costs of the operation,” Murphy said.

“Two days later, she was booked for surgery and within a week, we could see she was a totally new child. She started crawling for the first time, as her ear problem had heavily affected her balance.

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Laughs for first time

“Then, recently, Grace woke up at 2am. She was bright-eyed and didn’t want to sleep. Suddenly, I heard a new sound coming from her cot – a sound I had never heard before. Grace was laughing for the first time ever.

“I sat with her on the carpet from 2am to 4am just marvelling at this amazing child experiencing laughter for the first time.” Murphy said.

Netcare Pretoria East Hospital general manager Pieter Louw thanked Dr De Flamingh, anaesthetist Dr Doretta Venter as well as Mariet du Plooy and audiologists Amanda Bester and Nadia van Eyssen for giving their expertise pro bono to assist Grace.