Lucie, 14 years
I was born with no ears and with closed ear canals. And so, a few weeks after my birth, I received a headband bone conduction hearing aid.
Until I was six I had never really thought much about it. However, when I went to primary and secondary school, everyone gave me strange looks. It made me feel uncomfortable.
After a lot of consideration I was certain of one thing – I wanted rid of that headband. Dr. Frenzel gave me the chance to contact a patient of my own age. A short time later we met up. The conversation with that family really helped me a great deal. I also wanted to have ears. In 2012 the ear reconstruction and the operation to implant the Vibrant Soundbridge® took place.
The operations went well and I had no pain. I got on well with the nurses and doctors. Today, two years later, I feel like a normal person. I play handball and go to a mainstream school. Thanks Dr. Frenzel!
Annabell, 14 years
When I was 12 years old, I had a dreadful experience. I was attacked by a large dog and was badly injured. Unfortunately my head was most affected. Parts of my scalp had been ripped off, my ears were in shreds and the top half of my left ear was missing.
Immediately after the attack I received an emergency operation and the worst damage was confined to begin with. The worst moment for me was when I saw myself in the mirror after the operation, my lovely long hair was gone, my ears damaged and apart from that my face looked pretty terrible. I didn’t recognise myself, was as miserable as sin and just wretched.
Slowly the wounds healed and I had to be patient for several months until the scar correction and reconstruction of the missing ear could be planned.
Approximately half a year after the incident I was referred to Dr. Frenzel in the ENT department of the UKSH because of my ear. Dr. Frenzel was very nice, sympathetic and considerate and gave me courage. He thought ear reconstruction would be no problem in my case. Moreover, he also wanted to try and help with my scalp problem. A total of three operations followed in the space of approx. two to four months at a time.
During the operations the ear was reconstructed from rib cartilage and scar correction to the scalp was performed. Even after just the first operation you could recognise a complete ear again and the large scar on my head was substantially smaller. So I began to hope that everything could be good again.
In the meantime I am 15 years old. It is almost one and a half years since the third operation. I am so happy that my ear is complete again. My hair has also properly grown back again and covers what still remains of the scars on my head.
I am very grateful to Dr. Frenzel for helping me so much. Through his work and skill he’s made a “normal” life possible for me again!