Our 18-month-old daughter Opal was born deaf but now she can hear us for the first time after world-first NHS therapy

A DEAF tot can hear for the first time thanks to experimental NHS gene therapy. Opal Sandy, 18 months, was born with damaged nerves between her inner ear and brain. But last September she became the UK’s first patient — and world’s youngest — to be injected with a gene to potentially repair the defect.

Incredibly, she began responding to sounds in three weeks and, six months later, has working hearing in the treated right ear. Overjoyed mum Jo, 33, said: “When Opal first heard us clapping unaided, it was mind-blowing.” Opal, one of around 120 babies a year diagnosed with auditory neuropathy, was injected with a protein that reconnects hair cells with the hearing nerve.



On her left side is an electronic cochlear implant. The success of the early-stage trial also boosts her chances of developing normal speech, and she can already say “bye-bye” and “Dada”. Prof Manohar Bance, trial chief at Cambridge University Hospitals, said: “These results are spectacular and better than I expected.

” Dad James, of Eynsham, Oxfordshire, said: “We feel so proud to have contributed to such pivotal findings, which will hopefully help other children and families.” The trial will now recruit more patients to test higher doses and in both ears..