Meet Milo: MED‑EL Introduces New Storybook to Help Parents and Children Understand Microtia and Atresia
May 20, 2026 – (Innsbruck, Austria): Understanding hearing loss can be challenging – especially for young children. With its new illustrated booklet “Milo, the Little Pirate With BONEBRIDGE,” MED‑EL offers a fresh and engaging way for children and their families to explore hearing differences such as Microtia and Atresia with confidence, curiosity, and reassurance.
- Engaging storytelling helps children understand hearing differences
- Accessible, child-friendly resource for families navigating hearing loss – especially microtia and atresia
- MED-EL’s BONEBRIDGE highlighted as a treatment option for conductive hearing loss
Developed at MED‑EL’s global headquarters in Innsbruck, the story combines imagination and medical insight in a way that is both accessible and meaningful. Through a carefully crafted narrative, the booklet supports families in navigating the journey from diagnosis to hearing solutions – in language that children can truly understand.
A Story That Reflects Real-Life Experiences
At the heart of the booklet is Milo, a young elephant born with microtia and atresia. His outer ear is underdeveloped, and his ear canal is closed, resulting in conductive hearing loss on one side. Together with his older sister Mellie, who already has her own experience with hearing solutions, Milo explores what it means to hear differently. His story reflects the everyday realities many children face: difficulty locating sounds, challenges in conversations, and moments of uncertainty in unfamiliar environments. By presenting these situations through relatable characters, the story helps children recognize their own experiences and feel understood. At the same time, it gently introduces the journey toward solutions – supporting families in understanding the condition and the options available.
Turning Complex Concepts into Simple Understanding
One of the key strengths of the booklet is its ability to translate complex medical information into clear, child-friendly explanations. Alongside Milo’s journey, readers learn how hearing works and how bone conduction can provide an alternative pathway when the ear canal cannot transmit sound.
The story introduces MED‑EL’s BONEBRIDGE system as one possible solution – an implantable bone conduction system designed for people with conductive or mixed hearing loss. Through simple explanations embedded in the narrative, children and parents learn how sound can be transmitted via bone conduction directly to the inner ear. “Families are often faced with uncertainty and emotional challenges when a child is diagnosed with hearing loss,” says Dr. Patrick D’Haese, MED-EL’s Corporate Director of Awareness and Public Affairs. “Building on the strong success and feedback from Mellie’s story of her everyday life with cochlear implants, Milo expands our approach by helping families explore additional hearing solutions in a way that is engaging, reassuring, and easy to understand.”
Reducing Uncertainty, Building Confidence
Beyond medical information, the story focuses on emotions – Milo’s curiosity, his questions, and his growing confidence. His journey shows that hearing loss is not just a clinical condition, but an experience that children and families navigate together. Elements such as Milo’s imaginative role as a “little pirate” bring a sense of playfulness and empowerment to the story. They help children engage with the topic in a positive way and create strong points of identification.
By addressing common concerns and presenting them through storytelling, the booklet helps reduce fear and builds confidence – both for children and their families.
Supporting Families Around the World
With this new publication, MED‑EL continues its commitment to supporting families beyond technology – providing resources that inform, guide, and empower. The booklet is part of MED‑EL’s broader range of educational materials designed to make hearing health accessible to all ages. It can be used in clinical settings as well as at home, helping families prepare for important decisions and conversations.
Currently available in multiple languages, with further translations underway, “Milo, the Little Pirate with BONEBRIDGE” reflects MED‑EL’s global approach to making hearing care more understandable and inclusive.
The booklet is available free of charge as a PDF. Printed copies can be requested by clinics and hearing care professionals via MED EL offices and MED-EL Care Centers.
The MED-EL blog offers more information about microtia and atresia. For further information about hearing loss and hearing solutions for children, please visit the MED‑EL website.
About MED-EL
MED-EL Medical Electronics, a leader in implantable hearing solutions, is driven by a mission to overcome hearing loss as a barrier to communication and quality of life. The Austrian-based, privately owned business was co-founded by industry pioneers Ingeborg and Erwin Hochmair, whose ground-breaking research led to the development of the world’s first micro-electronic multi-channel cochlear implant (CI), which was successfully implanted in 1977 and was the basis for what is known as the modern CI today. This laid the foundation for the successful growth of the company in 1990, when they hired their first employees. To date, MED-EL has more than 3,100 employees from around 90 nations and 30 locations worldwide.
The company offers the widest range of implantable and non-implantable solutions to treat all types of hearing loss, enabling people in 140 countries enjoy the gift of hearing with the help of a MED-EL device. MED-EL’s hearing solutions include cochlear and middle ear implant systems, a combined electric acoustic stimulation hearing implant system, auditory brainstem implants as well as surgical and non-surgical bone conduction devices. www.medel.com
CEO
Doz. DI Dr DDr med. h.c. Ingeborg Hochmair
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PR & Corporate Communications
MED-EL Medical Electronics
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