A British toddler managed to restore hearing after she became the first person in the world to take part in a pioneering gene therapy study. This event, according to doctors, marks a new era in the treatment of deafness, writes UNN with reference to The Guardian.
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Opal Sandy was born unable to hear anything due to auditory neuropathy, a condition that disrupts the transmission of nerve impulses from the inner ear to the brain and can be caused by a defective gene.
But after receiving an infusion containing a working copy of the gene during a groundbreaking surgery that took just 16 minutes, the 18-month-old can hear almost perfectly and enjoys playing toy drums.
Her parents were "stunned" when they realized it was the first time she had heard after treatment. "I couldn't believe it," Opal's mother, Jo Sandy, said. "It was ... crazy.