Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
Zhu Yangyang babbles away like a typical three-year-old, calling for “mama” and “papa”. This is a remarkable achievement considering he was completely deaf just months ago.
He is one of five children whose hearing was restored through a revolutionary new gene therapy in a clinical trial led by Chinese and American researchers. This offers new hope for those born with this rare genetic mutation.
Yangyang’s mother Chang Yiyi says she was moved to tears when she realised, around three weeks after the treatment last September, that Yangyang could hear her knocking on the door.
The study’s results mark the first time the procedure was performed on both ears. This led to significant improvements in speech perception and the ability to locate the source of sounds, compared to the treatment in only one ear.
