Two-year-old Ukrainian refugee receives 'gift of sound' in United States

A Ukrainian refugee family that escaped the war in their home country and fled to the United States has received the miracle they were hoping for their toddler, the 'gift of sound'.

In a heartwarming story of hope, a young Ukrainian war refugee named Zlata has been given the gift of sound by a team of dedicated doctors in South Carolina. Zlata, who was born deaf, received a cochlear implant that has allowed her to hear for the first time in her life.

Parents Diana Kuzmina and her husband Olech Kuzmin as per CBS were for months haunted by the fear that their young daughter, two-year-old Zlata Kuzmina, was completely deaf and would forever be denied the sense many of us take for granted.

Thanks to a "very nice" doctor, the toddler can now hear.

The family travelled from their home in Odesa, Ukraine, to the United States. The trip, which took nearly two months, had them stay in Moldova, the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany, before finally settling in Boiling Springs, South Carolina.

Once in the US, the father Oleh Kuzmin landed a job at a nearby BMW plant, and as per his wife Diana Kuzmina, the miracle happened because "a lot of people prayed for us and God sent us a very good team and a very nice doctor."

CBS identifies the "very nice doctor" as Dr Teddy McRackan, a surgeon and cochlear implant specialist.

Upon running a spate of diagnostics, McRackan and his team at the Medical University of South Carolina found that the two-year-old girl was deaf in her left ear, but that "she was responding at very, very loud levels to noise in that right ear."

In a procedure done at the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children's Hospital, a cochlear implant was placed in Zlata's ear. But there was still no guarantee that the little Ukrainian refugee would be able to hear.

After a month of waiting for the surgical incision to heal, in April, the implant was turned on and they found that the procedure was a success. Although Zlata's deafness is not completely cured, the device attached to her head, and the implant enables her to hear.

(With inputs from agencies)

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