HALLOWEEN - The Scariest Things Found in People’s Ears

Trick or treat! It’s nearly Halloween, the season of all things spooky and scary. So, we thought why don’t we go through some of the scariest things that have been found in somebody's ears?

In this post we’ll tell you about a strange blockage in one of our client’s ears, an everyday item you should look out for, and some horror stories of scary things found in ears, guaranteed to make your skin crawl. Warning, this blog post is not for the faint hearted!

Glass (The First-Hand Experience)

It started off like any other routine micro-suction appointment, but then things got a little strange.

Our client had been experiencing hearing issues and a feeling of fullness in her ear. After multiple trips to the GP, she was told she had excess earwax causing issues and she was recommended oil drops. She administered the drops for weeks but didn’t experience any relief from her symptoms; the earwax was not budging. So, she sought our services.

Upon her arrival, we looked inside her ear and saw a large mass of earwax in the ear canal, so we decided to go ahead with micro-suction. However, something was not right. Micro-suction is a painless procedure, yet our client began complaining of discomfort. We stopped, took another look, and could see that the suction had started to uncover something. Unsure of what was lurking inside, we slowly and gently suctioned earwax off the strange object.

As the earwax began to clear, we saw it… a glass bulb-shaped object inside the client’s ear. We carefully removed it with forceps but could not help but wonder what it was and how it got there. Suddenly, it dawned on us. We asked the client what she had been using to administer her drops, and it was then that she produced a glass pipette from her handbag. Upon closer inspection, we saw only a jagged glass edge remained on the pipette, the missing piece was being held in the forceps.

Cotton Buds

You’ve probably heard it 100 times if you’ve read our other posts, but if you haven’t, you should NEVER put cotton buds in your ears! Using cotton buds in your ears can damage your eardrum, cause ear infections, and cause impacted earwax. When cleaning your ears with cotton buds it is common for cotton to fall away from the swab and into your ear canal. Cotton is difficult to remove from your ear yourself and often requires medical intervention. It hasn’t stopped people doing it though.

A Spider

Finding a spider in the ear is rare, but it does happen. One of the most famous occurrences happened to a woman in Taiwan. The woman couldn’t sleep for several days as she kept hearing clicking and rustling sounds coming from inside her ear. She went to the doctor, and when examining her the doctor found a small 2-3mm sized spider living inside of her ear. Even more incredibly, it had shed its exoskeleton inside her ear. The doctors were able to remove both with no lasting damage to the ear canal.

A Bullet

A man from Colorado, who had recently been shot in the shoulder, sought medical advice after experiencing pain and deafness in his left ear. An examination at the hospital found that he had a bullet lodged in his ear canal. The bullet had gone through his shoulder and into his ear canal. Luckily, the velocity of the bullet had decreased traveling through his shoulder to his ear. The bullet was removed surgically, and during the operation, surgeons found that amazingly the ear drum and rest of the ear were completely undamaged.

Maggots

A 27 year old woman went on a trip to Peru, after returning home she heard scratching sounds coming from inside her ear and regularly experienced severe headaches. Unable to find the cause of the problem she underwent surgery. During surgery, they found screwworm fly larvae and eggs in her ear (Screwworm is renowned for eating and ingesting flesh of warm-blooded animals). The maggots had chewed a 12cm hole in her ear canal. Luckily, she did not suffer any long term injury after their removal.

An elderly care home resident in Chicago was also found to have living maggots inside of her ear – 57 living maggots!  Investigators into this particular case are still unable to pinpoint how and where the fly would have gotten into her ear to lay eggs.

A Dandelion

In China, 16-month-old child was found to have a dandelion growing inside of their ear canal. The child was taken to the hospital after parents suspected an ear infection, but in fact it was a 2cm long blossoming dandelion growing inside the ear. A seed had gotten lodged into the ear canal, and the warm and moist conditions inside the ear allowed the dandelion to grow, filling her ear canal.

A Tooth

A 47 year old man from Sheffield had been experiencing deafness and pain in his ear for over 30 years. He visited the ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) clinic many times over his life but the cause of his issue was never identified. Determined not to give up, he booked another appointment with a specialist. The specialist used micro-suction to thoroughly clean his ears and then investigated using a microscope probe. It was then, that she pulled out a primary tooth (baby tooth) from the man’s ear with forceps. It is unknown how the tooth came to be in the man’s ear, but it is suspected he must have put it there as a child.

A Moth

A 12 year old boy from Colorado was experiencing a lot of pain after having a moth fly into his ear and getting stuck. He was rushed to the emergency room and doctors tried to remove the moth using irrigation. Unfortunately, all attempts to remove the moth with irrigation failed. Eventually, they removed the moth using forceps. The moth, survived the irrigation and entrapment in the ear, and proceeded to fly around the room.

And there you have it, some real-life horror stories scarier than most Halloween films. But, before you start losing sleep over every itch or blockage in your ear, and convince yourself it’s a spider living inside, remember these ear-related horrors are rare, in some cases preventable, and usually just a build-up of earwax! Choose ‘Treat’ this Halloween and book yourself in with Earview for better ear health using Microsuction – a safe and painless way to remove excess earwax.