Transcripts For WPVI Nightline 20140902 : vimarsana.com

Let it go let it go but first the nightline 5. Number one in just 60 seconds. Down. Lower. Thats more like it petsmarts prices on your favorite food brands just got lower shop a wide assortment of food and save up to 8 on your favorite dog cat food brands. At petsmart®. Good evening. Thanks for joining us. Youre about to meet a toddler who was born into a world of silence. But his persistent parents have been committed to trying to change that. We follow every step of their journey as they take a big gamble on a radical new surgery that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. So will their son hear for the first time . Were there for the results. Heres air force bases john donvan. Reporter a Tuesday Morning in boston. 17monthold alex is being prepped for what is certainly the biggest day in his young life. In his hospital room with him, his mother stephanie, and his dad phil. Alex cannot hear. But if all goes well in the next few hours, that could change. We need to just mark the sides reporter along with the Frederick Family is a team of doctors from massachusetts general and massachusetts eye and ear informry, plus a surgeon from italy who flew in just for the operation. What a beautiful child. This is alex. Alex. Reporter alex will soon be in surgery where a device will be implanted in his brain. One not even approved yet in the u. S. For use in children. But one that everyone here hopes will make it possible for him to hear. I am confident. We go . Reporter and as they escort alex down to the operating room, it is still only a gamble whether this will work. All they know for certain is that hell be in there for the next 5 1 2 hours. But in a way, alexs parents have been waiting all his short life for this moment. The day that newborn alex came home from the hospital, he had already faced a lifetime of challenge. Just 4 pounds 4 ounces, alex arrived two months premature and spent the first month of his life here in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the st. John hospital. I felt that i didnt do something perfectly during the pregnancy. I had two older kids in the beginning, all of a sudden our third child has all these issues, we didnt know what was going on. I dont know. I was overwhelmed. Reporter but at least his parents knew then he was going to make it. What they did not know at first was what he was still up against. Scans would show that little alex had a heart condition. And his vision appeared to be compromised. And then there was the matter of his hearing. Alex failed this hearing test that all newborns get. Then a second one two months later. That was a blow. The most difficult part for me was that first time we were where he failed his first hearing screen. I really thought, this is going to go fine. That was the most for me personally the most heartwrenching point. Reporter they had to learn about raising a child who could not hear. New ways to communicate other than calling his name. Being able to pick up signals from him that had nothing to do with sound. Figuring out how to adapt in general to the ways in which he would be different from the rest of the family. Like the day phil watched his oldest daughter, alexs sister evelyn, as she played with her baby brother. She wanted him to get a response from him. Something she was doing with a toy. I was like, evelyn, he cant hear. He may not see what youre trying to hand him. She just said, no, i dont want that for him. Hows he ever going to play with us or hows he ever going to play with anyone . Reporter when alex was 1 year old they tried a cochlear implant, a 40yearold technology that uses electrodes to stimulate auditory nerves. But that implant surgery, which left its mark behind alexs right ear, did not work due to the irregular structure of his inner ear. It was the first time in 25 years that hes been doing this surgery that he could not actually the first time in 25 years he couldnt do it, on your kid . Yeah. Reporter through all this life for alex went on as a constant round of visits to specialists. More tests for his heart. And then beginning classes in sign language. More. Reporter still for his parents, it was only sinking in what all this meant. Theres things that were going to happen in his life that i wouldnt be there. I wouldnt understand. Reporter couldnt be there for him. I wouldnt know how to help him through those situations where he needed help. Reporter which is why phil kept looking for some other answer, some other technology. He spent hours online. And then he learned about an approach that had been pioneered in italy for use in children by dr. Vittorio coletti, one that was about to undergo a series of Clinical Trials here in the u. S. To win fda approval. Auditory brain stem implant, abi. A small antenna that gets implanted on the actual brain stem so that it can pick up signals from a tiny microphone worn on the ear and relay them inside as electrical signals that reach the area of the brain associated with interpreting sound. Reporter this is one of dr. Colettis success stories. A young woman, previously deaf, now carrying on a phone conversation. But it must be noted it tack her years to be able to do this after the abi was placed inside her head. Thats really remarkable. And thats the reason that motivated me reporter phil heard about the abi and decided he needed to get alex in line for one of these trials. He sat down and started sending emails. Ended up finding three different places who were doing the trials. And phil contacted themu . K all. Reporter finally he heard back. There was an opening in the trial being run at the massachusetts eye and ear infirmary in boston under the direction of dr. Daniel lee. Abi surgery in the child who cannot get a cochlear implant can result in meaningful sound awareness and speech perception with time but it takes work. Reporter good news, alex is exactly the kind of kid the trial needs. It is october 5th, 2013. Were leaving from michigan and hopefully by tomorrow afternoon we will be in boston. Reporter and so the fredericks make their way from their michigan home, full of fear but also full of hope. Lookee, heres a sign, welcome to massachusetts. Reporter on that Tuesday Morning in boston, where we began with alex, it is now the second hour of his surgery. Surgery that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. But is being paid for by the familys insurance company. This is video the hospital provided of the abi being implanted into his brain. While this is going on, alexs parents take his sisters to a nearby park to keep them distracted. The hospital calls in with regular updates. Did you get the last call from him . It was 13 minutes ago. They were actually at the brain stem, they were using the electrodes to figure out where to place the abi on the brain stem. Reporter after 5 1 2 hours, they wheel alex into intensive care. Under that cap of bandages on his head, the cluster of wires that the doctors hope will allow him to hear. Looks good. Reporter but still, it is only a beginning. One of the joys of doing Something Like this is working with other people who all are as committed to the outcome as each of us individually are. Reporter it is now several weeks later. Healed and healthy, alex returns to have his abi switched on for the very first time. Those wires connect a device inside his head to a sound generator controlled from this doctors computer. In a moment they will switch it on with everyone hoping and watching to see if he reacts. But first the door opens. Because phil and stephanie have decided they want the first thing alex to hear to be his sist sisters voices. Can you say hi . Hi hi, alex. Reporter it does not quite work out that way. The device is now on. But theres no reaction. Then others in the room try raising the sound level. Again, no reaction. And then, to everyones surprise, that doctor on the left there, nearly offscreen, starts to slam her keys into the side of her desk. And there it was. That little turn of the head. Then he all of a sudden he just like looked r edlooked. He stopped everything he was doing and he look. I felt, he definitely heard that. I knew. He was completely focused on his toy, and then he just he looked. Its always a challenge. Its always good to see it go well. So, so well. First step. Of a long journey. A long journey, yeah. Hearing day. Its just hearing day. Reporter since then, alex and his parents returned to boston every few months. Hes gotten a second Device Installed in the very same spot after he fell and damaged the first one. Doctors continue to test alexs hearing response as they finetune the Electronics Inside his skull. That is the hardware side of the equation. The software side, so to speak, involves the stilllong process of his learning what sound actually is and how it has meaning. Maybe even meaning as words. It takes Speech Therapy and it takes a lot of commitment on the part of the family. Were very lucky our patient has unbelievably dedicated parents that are going to see this to a successful outcome. Reporter a long journey remains for alex. But the start of it was that little turn of the head. Connection made. For nightline, im john donvan in boston. Next, frozen. We have an exclusive look at how those loveable characters and catchy tunes all came to be. [ female announcer ] you get sick, you cant breathe through your nose. Suddenly youre a mouth breather. A mouth breather how do you sleep like that . You dry up, your cold feels even worse. Well, put on a breathe right strip and shut your mouth. 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Ganncr we took care of your back pain. You make him the mvp. Tylenol is clinically proven to provide strong, fast pain relief. But for everything we do, we know you do so much more. Tylenol sensitive skin needs a little extra attention. Venus embrace sensitive, more than a strip, an entire ribbon of gliding gels surround five comfort coated blades, for less irritation, venus embrace sensitive, a Perfect Match for sensitive skin. The gates of erindale are opening up for an exclusive look at the making of frozen. The characters beloved. The songs impossible to get out of your head. Tomorrow nights star josh gad, aka olaf the snowman, will host a special showing how it all came together, heres a sneak peek. Welcome to the legendary Walt Disney Animation studios. Do you know that 600 people worked for two and a half years to bring anna you dont have to protect me, im not afraid elsa, kristof im not alone, i have friends, remember . Hi, youre creepy. And yours truly to life. Wait one second. Oh oh, thank you. See the resemblance . And yes, i do i do parties and bar mitzvahs so call me any day of the week. Im in love with the animators. Theyre the true heroes of this whole thing. In creating a character in animation, two people are really vital. Because. I cant. The voice actor and the animator. Getting nice, long, sweeping lines around her face. They together make the character. Beautiful. Oh, i wish i could feel like this all the time kristen bell and idina menzel. What power do you have to stop this winter . Theyre amazing with what they brought to these characters. Hey i kept pushing for her to be quirkier and goofier. Youre beautifuler i mean i sort of embraced having a not so standard princess personality. Im completely ordinary. Thats right, she is. In in the best way. What . No, no, no idina also brought this wonderful vulnerability to elsa. When i was a kid i had this voice. I would hide it all the time so i completely related to this character. When idina came to the studio to visit, she talked with animators. They sat me down in front of a group of about 80 of them, which i thought was going to be three she was a little bit nervous. And i was thinking, this is kind of like elsa. But when idina started singing the past is in the past all of that changed. You could see the power come out of her. It was amazing. Even as a kingdom of erindale was coming together, our story was not. The very heart of the problem . Seemed to be elsa. When i first came on they had made her this blue character. Spiky hair. Seemed like she was just your quintessential evil queen. And disneys done that and theyre good at it. But its like, can we see something new . What we did was bring the lopezes in from the very beginning. At the time elsa was a villain. So we were still writing a villain. And we started getting into the head space of what you feel like if you were that isolated. Lock the gates. Limit her contact with people. Keep her powers hidden from everyone. We knew in this moment that shed go through a transformation from repressed to letting her powers out and sort of trying to get away from society and be who she really was. And then bobby came up with this vamp. Do you want to play the vamp . Sure. Once they kind of started writing from that, from the reality of that, we found that we had something to say. We got this hook. Kristen got the hook let it go. She had to let go of everything shes ever known. And yet it was this moment of exhilaration where she could finally let go of all shed been holding inside. Not a footprint to be seen a kingdom of isolation and it looks like im the queen the wind is howling like the swirling storm inside can i keep it in heaven knows i tried the song wrote itself very quickly. It was a day and a half, maybe two days. Be the good girl you always have to be feel dont feel dont let them know most we sent the demo out. Everyone went, oh my gosh. Thats great. Shoot, we have to rewrite the whole thing. That song came at the right time, it fundamentally changed the entire movie. We wanted to see the progression through that song. Shes experimenting with the magic. She hasnt used it in so long. So shes playing with it now. She speaks to many people in that moment. Where shes not going to be controlled by this fear. Here i stand and i think when you finally have that moment, that im going to be my truest self, its so liberating. The cold never bothered me anyway frozen is produced by our Parent Company disney. Tomorrow night you can tune in for the full story of frozen, making a disney animated classic, at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on abc. Well be right back. I am so nervous right now, its not even funny. Oh my gosh. Driver 1 you ready . Yeah go [sfx] roaring altima engine woah ahhhha we told people they were riding nissans most advanced altima race car. We lied. About the race car part. Altima, with 270 horsepower and active understeer control. How did you . What i dont even, im speechless. Innovation that excites. We used to have so many emptymom ls thats why we switched to charmin ultra mega roll. Charmin ultra mega roll is 75 more absorbent so you can use less with every go. Plus it even lasts longer than the leading thousand sheet brand. Charmin ultra mega roll. Tomorrow, world news tonight anchor david muir and our team report from the Syrian Border where children dont board school buses, they board pickup trucks to work in fields supporting their families at 8, 9, 10 years old. Be sure to watch his full report on world news tonight and nightline. Thanks for watching abc news. Tune into Good Morning America tomorrow. As always were online at abcnews. Com. Good night. [dramatic music] yeah [cheers and applause] whats up . Whats up . Whats up . Whats up . Whats up . Whats up . Hello. Hey. How are you . Im good. How are you . Good. Come on down. [cheers and applause] hello, and welcome to millionaire. [cheers and applause] yeah. With me today is a middle School Choir Teacher who believes she missed her true calling in life a qvc infomercial spokesperson. From plano, texas, give it up for toni ugolini ugolini . Yeah. Ugolini toni toni ugolini its hard. Its hard. Its aits a little hard. Its a mouthful. I like it. Toni, so you thank you. You wanted to be a qvc spokesperson. Yes. Thats how you see yourself. Mmhmm. Give me an example. This is youryou got the format. Perfect. So theres the two different people, so idwhatever they want me for, i will do. I can be the one, when you turn on the tv, thats like, hi, and welcome to qvc. Were here selling the supersteam shark vacuum cleaner thing thatll get all the stains out of your carpet. And then it cuts to the reenactment person. Right. Which, id be good at that too, cause, like, youre, you know, at home having your wine, and youre like, oh, no. I dropped wine everywhere