A local family got a very special gift this holiday-their baby got to hear the joy of the season. Local 12's Liz Bonis tells us how a special team made it all happen.
Little Katie, who is now 20 months old, can dance as she listens to Frosty the snowman- simple joy her parents Libby and Andy Hodapp thought they might never see because "She wouldn't have been able to hear it if we didn't have the hearing aids."
Katie was born without the hair cells and nerves of her inner ears working properly. Says her Dr. Daniel Choo, "So it causes what we would classify as a nerve hearing loss --on the downside there's nothing we can do to fix that --but we can go in and compensate for that with hearing aids."
The way she got she got those however was through something very special at Children's Hospital. It is a fund that comes from private donations, and it made all the difference for this family. "They are four thousand each, and insurance doesn't cover any of it. The fund is called CCHAT or the Cincinnati Children's Hearing Aid Trust. "It exists to offer children in the state of Ohio their first set of hearing aids completely free of charge."
Katies' parent say the kindness of strangers has given their family and many others a gift they could never repay. "They don't know Katie. They don't know the kids that receive this money and it was like the weight of the world was off our shoulders."
