Local Baby Goes Viral

From: Fayette Advocate - ‎Oct 2, 2012

A picture snapped by a relative and posted onto Facebook, and shared by Fayette Advocate on our official Facebook page, has gone viral.

Suncea, a 13 month old toddler from Washington Court House, is deaf.

Her Grandmother said that because Suncea’s parents both had a rare genetic gene, when put together, it caused their child not to have cochlear hair — tiny fibers inside our ear that allows us to hear.

It wasn’t known until she was nearly two months old, but Suncea’s grandmother knew right away that there was an issue with her hearing.

After being taken to the Doctor’s office, and several test being ran, it was determined that Suncea lacked the little fibers, but there was possibly a solution — surgery.

Because of various tests needed to be ran, and serious parental commitment would be needed, surgery to fix Suncea’s deafness couldn’t be performed until she was over a year old.

Well, that came last month. And just about 30 days after her first birthday, this past Friday, Suncea went to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus to have a procedure preformed, known at cochlear implants, that would possibly give her the opportunity to hear.

While being prepped for surgery, Suncea’s God-Mother, Joni, snapped a picture of her and posted it on Facebook to update friends and family that the surgery was about to begin.

Little did Joni know that the photo, which was meant for 636 people on Facebook, would go vial across the world and be seen by over a half a million people.

Fayette Advocate shared Joni’s photo, pictured right, on our official Facebook page with the following caption:

Today, Suncea, a little girl from Washington Court House, will undergo surgery at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in an attempt to gain hearing for the first time. Let’s all give her a “like” to show our support!

Within minutes, the photo took off.

People from all over Fayette County started liking the photo. Then people all over Ohio, and then the nation.

Nationwide Children’s Hospital shared the photo on their official Facebook page to their 124,000 fans.

Channel Six in Columbus also shared the photo for their 67,000 fans to show support for Suncea by “liking” the photo.

Before it was all said and done, and after being viewed over a half a million times in less than 24 hours and in over 9 countries, 26, 235 people had liked Suncea’s photo showing their support.

Needless to say, her family was overwhelmed with the support and is very thankful to those who were generous enough to “like” Suncea’s photo.

On October 16, Suncea will have the finishing touches put on her cochlear implants by having a microphone and a transmitter attached to equipment already installed on Friday during surgery.

That’s when she’ll hear her first sounds… ever.

Nationwide Children’s Hospital contacted Suncea’s family and asked if they could be there with a camera crew when the equipment was turned on for the first time. If given a positive reaction, Suncea could appear in a national television commercial.

Stay with Fayette Advocate for the latest on Suncea and her road to hearing.

©2012 Gump Communications