Nine-year-old Kieran Sorkin was born deaf and also had a rare condition which meant he did not have fully formed ears – just small lobes where his ears should be.
Last August surgeons at Great Ormond Street hospital in London performed a six-hour operation in which they used cartilage from his ribs to create a pair of ears and grafted them to his head.
On Thursday at an important follow-up appointment, his dreams came true when the lead surgeon Neil Bulstrode said the ears had healed sufficiently for Kieran to sport sunglasses just in time for summer.
The schoolboy responded: “Awesome!” before promptly putting on a pair and admiring them in a mirror.
Boy born without ears has new pair made from own ribs
Bulstrode used an outline of the ears of Kieran’s mother, Louise Sorkin, as a “family template” to make Kieran’s ears as close as possible to the shape he might otherwise have had.
Kieran said: “Before the operations I thought I might get elephant ears or mouse ears, but I’ve got my mum’s ears. It’s weird but I feel great. Mr Bulstrode is the best surgeon as he made my wishes come true – I’ve got ears and can wear sunglasses.”
While the latest procedure was primarily cosmetic, thanks to several previous operations and a hearing aid, the youngster has gradually been able to hear.
Kieran, from Bushey, Hertfordshire, struggled at his first school because he looked different to the other children but his new ears have already boosted his confidence.
He had spoken of having ear surgery since the age of six after he saw a TV programme about it.
His mother, a nursery school teacher, said: “Kieran has been very brave throughout this journey and the results today are overwhelming. We know we all made the right decision with Kieran to go ahead with surgery. It’s already made such a huge difference to his self-esteem and confidence.”
The youngster was born with bilateral microtia, a congenital deformity where the external ear is underdeveloped, which affects one in 100,000 babies.
During the operation, medics harvested the rib cartilage from both sides of Kieran’s chest and then carved and shaped it into frameworks for ears. They then grafted the ears on to Kieran’s head under pockets of skin and used a vacuum to shape the skin to the contours of the new ear.
Bulstrode said the operation stood to bring enormous benefits to Kieran.
“I’m very pleased with the shape and definition of the ears, but for me the most important thing is the way this has made Kieran feel and how pleased he and his family are,” the surgeon said. “The operation has already had a huge impact on his confidence, and this could have a transformative effect on his life as he gets older.”
Great Ormond Street performs more ear reconstructions than any other hospital in the UK, including between 35 and 40 total reconstructions each year.
Researchers at the hospital are working with the University College London Institute for Child Health to try to perform ear reconstructions for children like Kieran by growing new ear frameworks and other skeletal structures from a child’s own stem cells.
They also hope to be able to use stem cells from a child’s own fat to create a new ear, which would be far less invasive than the current treatment.
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