One-year-old Dundee boy Oliver Bosch is recovering in Italy and has finally had his head bandage removed after surgery.
Oliver, who was born with a rare condition which meant he had no auditory nerves, had a pioneering operation to fit a device on to his brain stem last week.
Now discharged from hospital, his mother Jemma Bosch said it was a relief for him to finally have the bandage removed.
She said: “He has a little dressing over the wound itself but it looks great, it’s healing really well.
“He got the bandage off, though not through lack of trying himself. We go back into hospital tomorrow for another wound check then that’s it until the big switch-on next Tuesday.”
Doctors will turn Oliver’s new hearing device on next week, which is when his family will find out if he can hear their voices for the first time. They will stand behind Oliver and bang a drum to see if he turns around.
Mrs Bosch has not seen her daughter Darcey for four weeks and her husband Ben returned after Oliver’s operation to look after her but they will all be there for the big day.
She added: “We can’t wait.”
After the switch-on, Oliver will return to Italy six times over the next year for progress checks and fine tuning of the device.