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Help us give Kira a chance to hear [1]

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Date: 2023-03-24

Kira waiting at home in the Republic of Georgia for her cochlear implant

My dear friend Lia in the Republic of Georgia needs our help. Her sweet little granddaughter, Kira needs cochlear implants very soon or the nerves to her ears will atrophy and die, preventing her from ever benefiting in the future from hearing aids or even cochlear implant

During my almost 5 years in the Republic of Georgia, I worked closely with Lia who soon became a good friend, and we have kept in close touch since my retirement. We were ecstatic to discover that her daughter Anna was pregnant, but to our dismay, Anna was told that the infant was not developing as expected. Anna had an emergency C-section during her 8th month of pregnancy when it was discovered that the baby’s growth had stopped, and that her vital signs were deteriorating. The terrible news was that baby Kira had contracted Congenital Cytomegalovirus (CMV) that was causing heart problems and would probably lead to developmental delay, blindness, and deafness. In addition, a brain MRI showed a diffuse white matter abnormality, periventricular leukomalacia, meaning that Kira also had a high probability of developing cerebral palsy. We all cried long and hard, but Kira’s mother was totally inconsolable. The healthcare infrastructure in Georgia is not well developed for children with disabilities, and Kira’s future looked bleak indeed.

Kira spent 40 days in neonatal intensive care where doctors carefully instituted a highly aggressive treatment regimen for CMV. Amazingly, this treatment resulted in normal vision for Kira, and at 1 year and 8 months of age she is now an energetic and sweet child who is full of life. However, her physical development has been slow, as predicted, and she is only now learning to walk. Her early ability to hear out of one ear has slowly deteriorated, and she is now profoundly deaf. Despite her hearing loss, little Kira is cheerful, loving, and tries to communicate with everyone.

If Kira is to live a normal life and be a contributing member of society, she must have at least one cochlear implant, and she must have it soon. The slowly deteriorating nerves to her middle ear will continue to atrophy until they are dead, after which time even a cochlear implant cannot help her.

Children begin to develop the vocal muscles and mimic the sounds of their particular language starting at around 6 months of age. Kira will never be able to speak Georgian unless she can hear and mimic the sounds of that language, some of which are very subtle and difficult to achieve. (Despite having a talent for languages and trying hard for almost 5 years, I was never able to hear the difference, much less make the sounds of several of the g and k consonant variations.)

Time is working against Kira, and the only truly positive outcome for her is dependent on the urgent surgical placement of at least one cochlear implant. Because she has other unresolved congenital abnormalities caused by CMV, the surgery should be performed by specialty surgeons to minimize the risks of complications. Hospitals with such surgeons are not available in the Republic of Georgia, so Kira’s family went to great lengths to have her evaluated at the Department of Otolaryngology of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) in Munich, Germany. Her cochlear implant has been scheduled in early May.

The major problem now facing Kira’s family is financial. She is not covered by health insurance, and salaries in Georgia are abysmally low (e.g., $500USD/month for professionals such as physicians practicing in larger cities). The cost of cochlear implant surgery on just one side is 52,000 Euros for nonresidents of Germany. You can see why I wanted to set up a GoFundMe for her. Kira will never be able to hear without this surgery, and the cost is far more than her family can afford.

Here’s the link: wwwgofundme.com/...

If you can’t donate, it’s OK, but please do spread the word to anyone and everyone you know. Lia can use all the help she can get to save Kira’s hearing, and your help will also demonstrate our goodwill toward another post-Soviet democracy fighting to stay democratic!

Ძალიან დიდი მადლობა (Ძalian didi madloba) meaning “Thanks a lot!” In Georgian

I left Facebook a few years ago, and I’ve never been on any other social media; my husband calls me a troglodyte... Beside my immediate neighborhood friends, Daily Kos is the only other “community” where I can spread the word of this fundraiser, so this is my first post. I hope I haven’t been too verbose, though my first impression is that this post is too long. Any editorial comments will be welcome!

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/24/2104417/-Help-us-give-Kira-a-chance-to-hear

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