Manitoba child thriving following infant cochlear implant surgery
She has been called a pioneer after undergoing cochlear implant surgery at a very early age and has since paved the way for many younger Manitobans to get their ears.
Ireland Gault was the youngest Manitoban ever to be outfitted with bilateral cochlear implants.
They were turned on for the very first time when she was 11 months old back in February of 2018.
Surgeon Dr. Darren Leitao said the goal was to have her hearing before her first birthday.
"This gives her a chance to have her parents sing her Happy Birthday," said Leitao.
Since then, four birthdays have come and gone for Ireland and now she's the one singing.
Recently, mom Courtney Gault says Ireland has started working on speech.
"She's really good with vowels, and right now we are really working on the beginning of words and closing the end of words," said Courtney.
Because of the pandemic, Courtney has been doing a lot of the therapy herself and says one helpful trick is to whisper words like pop.
"She will hear the ‘P’ in the front and the back if I whisper it, as opposed to just saying pop, because of how she hears,” said Courtney.
Because Ireland's procedure proved safe and successful, 17 other Manitoba children have been outfitted with cochlear implants "We now make that our standard of care for children that are diagnosed with deafness to get them hearing before their first birthday," Leitao said.
Ireland's parents played a big role in making this a reality, according to Leitao. He said they pushed the medical team to do the surgery as soon as possible.
"When we first found out Ireland was a candidate, we had done some research in different countries of how they were implanting children as young as three to four months," said Will Gault, Ireland's father.
The biggest benefit of getting “her ears,” as she calls them, as soon as she did is that she will be going to kindergarten with other kids her age.
"Just to see her out there fitting in, it just brings such joy to us," said Will.
He says she already loves preschool and being a big sister.
"She's so kind and she's so helpful and she's the best big sister and she’s the most awesome daughter. We are so lucky to have her," said Will.
Ireland's profound deafness was found through Manitoba's universal newborn hearing screening program, which started in 2016.
Ninety-eight per cent of newborns in the province are screened through this program.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.