Boy, 9, so badly bullied for his ‘Dumbo’ ears he threw up every day has plastic surgery after researching op on YouTube
Elwood Sanderson-Sheard asked his parents for ear-pinning surgery after looking up videos online
A NINE-year-old who was so badly bullied for his 'Dumbo' ears he would vomit every day has had plastic surgery after researching the operation himself on YouTube.
Elwood Sanderson-Sheard asked his parents for the ear-pinning procedure after discovering videos online of vloggers talking about the surgery.
Mum Sarah Sanderson, 37, says her son used to vomit every day before school and suffered regular panic attacks – but it took nearly a year before she discovered the cause of his mystery illness.
And she said she was initially terrified of Elwood going under the knife – but said she was proud of the youngster for researching the operation himself and for speaking out to help other bullied children.
Mum-of-two Sarah, of Birstall, West Yorks, said: "On a Sunday evening Elwood would start saying he felt sick and had tummy ache.
"Then from getting him up at 7am on a Monday morning to getting him to school he would literally be throwing up because of his nerves and would have to go to the toilet about five times.
"It was because of facing the bullies but we didn't know – he would just say he didn't want to go to school and would give every excuse apart from that the bullying was happening.
"When he would get into school I would get a phone call after an hour to tell me he was being sick.
"Because he was so anxious and upset he would actually throw up in the classroom every day.
"When we found out about the bullying we discovered children were bullying him about his ears – calling him 'Dumbo', and saying they were ugly.
"He had no confidence at all and his ears bothered him so much.
"After we discovered the bullying Elwood looked up the procedure on YouTube and found other people talking about it.
"At first we were shocked somebody so young would go and research that on their own.
"It made me upset to think children the same age as him had made him feel so low about himself."
Sarah believes year five pupil Elwood's bullying was going on for about a year, since he was aged seven or eight.
But while she had suspicions she was not certain of the cause his sickness and anxiety until his schoolwork began to suffer and she was called into his school for a meeting in December last year, which triggered a chat with her son two days before the Christmas holidays.
Over the festive break Sarah and Elwood's dad Andy Sheard, 45, a welder, were shocked when their son told them he wanted to go under the knife.
The family looked at private ear-pinning surgery, which would have cost £3,000, but Elwood was offered the three-hour procedure on the NHS and went under the knife at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield on May 19 this year.
Surgeons discovered his ears stuck out because the cartilage had not formed properly.
During the operation they remoulded the cartilage, inserted splints and cut and pulled back the skin behind his ears.
Elwood had to wear a headband for three months – 24 hours a day for the first month, then only at night – but despite this was excited to go back to school after the operation.
Sarah said she is extremely pleased with how Elwood's school, Windmill Church of England Primary in Birstall, arranged ten weeks of counselling for him before he had his operation and immediately put strategies in place to deal with the bullying, which has now stopped.
Elwood now wants to raise awareness of bullying and said he hoped sharing his story would help other children who were suffering to speak out too.
Sarah said: "We had a gut feeling bullying could have been what was happening, but we didn't know if there was something seriously wrong with his health.
"I was his mummy and I couldn't do anything for him as he wouldn't talk or let me in – I cried daily knowing my little boy was so broken.
"We went through so many worries, so it was a relief when Elwood finally spoke out and told us about it.
"The change in Elwood since his surgery is unbelievable – he is so much more confident and is just like 'I'm the man' now.
"Before the operation he was laughing as he fell asleep from the anaesthetic because he knew what the outcome would be.
"As soon as he came out of hospital we noticed the change. I am just so proud of him – he was adult enough to make the right decision and he never once complained about the pain.
"One night I heard a crash in the bathroom at midnight and Elwood had been balancing on the toilet just to look at his new ears in the mirror.
"He didn't even mind going to school in the headband and looked forward to starting the new school year this September.
"He told me 'people can try and bully me for wearing a headband with their ugly words, but I know my ears under the headband won't be ugly any more'.
"Windmill Primary went above and beyond to support and build my little man's confidence, and our wonderful NHS gave him wonderful care.
"Elwood is full of confidence and smiles and most of all loves himself – nobody will break him again."
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