Meet The Inspiring 9-Year-Old Girl With a Bionic Eye | This Morning

now we have two very special guests on the SAA this morning 9-year-old Maya and her mom Lauren have had their lives completely transformed thank thanks to some amazing eye technology yeah they traveled to the US to receive treatment from a specialist in the field who has not only given Maya a very very cool prosthetic eye which you're going to see in just a minute but also changed her life completely and you're just absolutely buzzing to be in here today we're delighted to have you both in we've had good fun this morning haven't we yeah oh yeah and you notice some of the crew danc in the ad breaks weirdos right yeah I a little bit weird H thanks so much for thank you for the invite it's fantastic to be here um right micro Thalia yes that's the condition you have on your ey tell us about it um so basically it's um class of small eye syndrome so her eye didn't develop properly in my womb um I didn't find out until she was born um but since then she's had to have facial expanders to help her face grow at the same rate um we've had 24 surgeries 24 surgeries skin graphs fat graphs granulomas we've had infections we've had failed appointments yeah there's been quite a lot um but obviously I found the guy in America and we went out and it's completely transformed our lives but before you found the doctor in America what what was like life like how did um my you know navigate from a day-to-day basis had vision from one eye yeah so she's been blind since she was born um she wasn't meant to walk until well the Ava is like 18 to 24 months she smashed it eight months you know what I'm not surprised me and Maya I'm just not surprised she's clumsy don't get me wrong but um she can do anything that every other child can which they told us that she might struggle with so she smashed all the odds and she's just absolutely amazing everything she applies to she just she's out the water with it Maya you walked into a little room full of adults this morning and makeup and you're chat to everyone I mean you called me Craig David quite a lot which you know yeah kind of me a little bit right um but you're great we're delighted you're here and you were telling me this morning about what it was like before you got your UI and what school was like so tell us what that was like it was tough wasn't it it was very tough I got bullied quite a lot I got called Rude names I got picked on a lot I got like I wasn't allowed to play with anyone people wouldn't really let me play with anyone oh well were missing out on a wonderful friend Laur okay so that's on them look at you now wow that must have been really hard for you Lauren it really was it like just seeing her cuz I think when she was younger she didn't realize obviously the comments and everything that people would make but when it set home of how she was feeling she then stopped going out she didn't want to go to school she was going in crying she was coming home crying um so we arranged some counseling for her and it was one of the best moves that I've ever done and we've just kept going and going and going and now I've got my baby girl back you know we we meet a lot of brilliant young people who come in and have been through various operations and coming out of school for all those operations 24 and it hinders that development it's not just the physical side of things all those little things it makes life tricky doesn't it yeah it really was I just she's just so upset and she's the most outgoing loveliest kid and but now she's got I've got my little girl back a i and we're happy smiling and like obviously we've been alive for 9 years but we're now finally living which is just fantastic sometimes you got to go through those rough bits to shape you as a as a person and you have got some serious sasma you do can you tell us about your new eye it like when you like like when it's not in the light I think it like the pupil goes smaller but when it's in the light it goes bigger yeah so it's it's um a trick of the eye so basically the people will dilate um to to the eye um which is obviously what we've gone over for and you can't even tell could could I didn't I was thinking is that way cuz I wouldn't have ever known remember the game you maybe play this morning you maybe play guest the eye yeah I know and I really had to guess that's the thing a lot of pathetic eyes they don't move they're static whereas your new eye behaves much like the other does yeah yeah so it's obviously it's molded to the fat graphs that have been moved from a tummy into a eye and um it moves with it's not in sync but it's movement and it's fantastic so and he it gave you some other eyes as well didn't he yeah well we we've asked for a little special one for her you've had a few special upgrades have you would you be able to show us one of your eyes at all okay now well while um Maya shows us I'm going to ask you some questions about the doctor in America now I know that you were um you were searching and searching and searching weren't you for for this treatment how did you find the doctor in America that has designed these brand new so basically I have scouted every artificial eye um examiner in the UK pretty much I've got them on Instagram I've got them on Facebook I've got them on obviously all the reviews and I've just followed and followed for a few years here she is that is cool that's so cool that is cool oh my and you did it so quickly that's so cool oh you look like a superhero is that love heart it's a love heart rainbow and what else does it do it glows in the dark it glows in the dark you know how many 9-year-old boys out there at the moment I love her wow so this is your Tik Tok so you're a dancer you do dance moves on Tik Tok the eyes glowing Jo look yeah Nothing is Stopping You Maya nothing at all and and you're good at football as well very good at football and you've got a favorite football who's your favorite footballer just Scott wow okay yeah we love a bit of Jo Scott um you had to do a lot of fundraising to pay for this it's not cheap uh talk to us about that um so basically we raised the fun so we had three eyes made we had the bionic one which is the one with the dilating pupil we had the fun eye which is the one she's wearing now she designed herself um and then we have a backup eye so basically this backup eye for when we go to get the next mold as she grows um is slightly bigger so it'll start expanding the socket ready for the next treatment that we're going to go over and get and obviously getting over there is not cheap and um staying over but her first sequence of treatment was six in 10 days whereas now when we go over we can fly over we've only got three days cuz the main base is made and then we've just fly back LA and how much do they cost um so £4,600 per eye price um and then obviously when you've got to get out there and get back um but we've agreed to go every 18 months and Mommy's going to be working some extra hours and some saving into it so we can get over and then we're going to try and make a little bit of that's our holiday whilst we're out there well um you know you know we should do I think we should get you another eyee I think we should buy you an eye no yeah yeah we'd like to buy you an eye oh no you won't you're going to make me cry oh don't would you like that you can have anything you want on it you choose it okay we'll get you another R you made me cry I'm so sorry you deserve it because you are such a brilliant young lady and you've proved all those people are nasty to in school how WR they were yeah are you loving school again yeah we we've moved to schools and oh my God she's just flying you the school is way better yeah it's amazing isn't it do you know what when you come in this morning I thought this little lady has got some real magic about her and you really have you got some serious sass I thought Here Comes Trouble that's probably why she called her C Davis DAV um Maya would you come back and show us your new eye yeah is that okay yeah thank you so much oh my gosh thank you for no thank you for having on thanks you

Channel: This Morning

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Keywords: This Morning, This Morning ITV, Holly Willoughby, Phillip Schofield, Alison Hammond, Dermot O'Leary, ITV, STV, Josie Gibson, Craig Doyle, Rylan, This Morning Funny Moments, This Morning Funniest Moments, This Morning Interviews, Alison Hammond Interviews

Id: RjDS1ue8XHU

Length: 8min 11sec (491 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 22 2024