‘MY LITTLE GIRL WAS BORN WITHOUT EARS'

ANNA AND JAY’S 4-YEAR OLD HAS ONE WISH … TO WEAR EARRINGS

-  John Parrish

When Harriet Sanders was born, her mum and dad’s hearts burst with love, but their joy was tinged with concern.

Cradling their beautiful bub in their arms, they saw Harriet had no left ear and the right was tiny nubs of skin.

“It was a big shock,” her mum, Anna, 46, tells New Idea. “I’m a plastic surgery nurse and I’d never seen anything like it before.”

Anna and her husband, Jay – who live in Tarragindi, South Brisbane – were told their much longed-for baby had bilateral microtia and atresia, meaning she has no ear or ear canals on either side of her head. Now though, in a revolutionary new surgery, the Brisbane 4-year-old will get new ears.

The genetic condition affects one in 10,000 babies, but very few girls and rarely both ears.

“After the shock of seeing she had no ears we were so worried,” says Anna. “We wondered if our little girl would ever be able to hear.”

Thankfully, tests revealed Harriet’s inner ear was functioning and she had limited hearing.

Doctors fitted her with a headband-mounted hearing aid which conducted sound through the bone in Harriet’s forehead.

Rather than learning sign language, Anna and Jay encouraged their little girl to develop speech and language skills.