Boy born without ears has pair made from his ribs

A boy born without any ears has had a pair created from his own ribs.

Experts at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London performed a six-hour operation where they used cartilage from Kieran Sorkin's ribs to create a pair of ears and grafted them to his head.

The nine-year-old was born deaf and also had a rare condition which meant he did not have fully formed ears - just small lobes where his ears should be.

While the latest procedure was primarily cosmetic, thanks to several previous operations and a hearing aid, Kieran has gradually been able to hear.

He is still around 90% deaf, but when using hearing aids he can "hear the wind blow and the birds tweet", his father David Sorkin said.

Kieran struggled at his first school because he looked different to the other children. Mr Sorkin said that the operation will boost the youngster's confidence "no end".

Before the surgery, Kieran said: "I've always wanted big ears, and now I'm finally going to have them."

Following the procedure his parents helped him to take a photograph of his newly crafted ear, or a "side selfie", to which he simply replied: "Wow".Mr Sorkin said that he and his wife Louise were over the moon with the outcome.

Mr Sorkin also said that the family were unsure about whether to change the features Kieran was born with, but ultimately the decision was Kieran's. He added that it had made school life difficult.

Kieran was born with bilateral microtia - which affects just one in 100,000 babies - a congenital deformity where the external ear is underdeveloped.

During the six hour operation consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon Neil Bulstrode, harvested the rib cartilage from both sides of Kieran's chest and then carved and shaped it into frameworks for Kieran's ears. When designing them he used an outline of Mrs Sorkin's ears as a "family template" to make them as close as possible to the ear shape that the youngster might otherwise have had.