That converts sound to nerve impulses and then sends them to the brain. with no cocleas, a cochlear implant would be no help. from the start tommy and danielle learned sign language. they figured it would be the only way caden would ever communicate. then danielle heard of another option. it was random. i just talking to a friend and she was like, i think that they re doing abis in the u.s. now. so abi stands for auditory brain stem implant. the main use for this is for kids born without nerves to the ears. so i like calling it a bionic ear. reporter: dr. mark kreeger is a pete trick neurosurgeon at children s hospital in los angeles. in cop junction with usc s tech school of medicine a clinical trial was started in 2014 to perform auditory brain stem implants on young children. here s how it works. similar to a cochlear implant, it has external and internal
jamie: two stories that get me. military members coming home and little kids getting medical miracles. look at this boy, his life changed forever. thanks to a groundbreaking medical procedure. he is three-year-old jason clamp and he heard his father s voice for the first time. watch. daddy loves you. daddy loves you. jamie: and audio brain stem implant. it s been used in adults but the first child in the u.s. to receive one. we want them all to get them if they need it. doctors are back. what do you think? it s wonderful news. we started the program with sad news and now we re ending with wonderful medical miracle. now, we are going to artificial ear and if this brain stem implant basically has a microphone
Has a processor bypasses the auditory system and with the base stem, this kid for the first time can hear. can you imagine. jamie: his reaction to this. the sooner you do it the better it is. usually around nine months that is when they are learning how to speak and all the movements. he has a long way to go but certainly this is a major medical miracle. now, the reason why we did this brain stem implant because he doesn t have auditory nerve. if he had that we would have done a cochlear implant. jamie: how many kids are affected by this and why has it taken so long to approve it? it s very rare and based on something that he is talking about which is the cochlear thing that looks like a snail. we have put implants from that going to the brain. that is very common, but in his case, in this child s
Just soaking in the sounds around him. taking it all in. we showed you this video yesterday. this is when grayson clamp heard his dad s voice for the very first time. the 3-year-old, he is the first child in the united states to receive an auditory brain stem implant. he was born without a nerve that connects the brain stem to audio waves. his parents, they re absolutely thrilled. as you can imagine. with all of his progress. this morning they were on cnn s new day. we learned little grayson loves music. watch. i don t know that there s any that he doesn t like. he likes it all. yeah, yeah. i love it all. we ve had a few times where there s been live music he s really been drawn to. i m curious about the relationship between the boys, too. i imagine they have their own way of communicating as siblings often do, right? yeah. have things changed? are you seeing how they re discovering new things together? i don t think yeah. they like to communicate through wrestlin
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