A Scottish man who had consulted a doctor about his worrying hearing loss – assuming it was an ear infection – and who was prescribed antibiotics, was dumbfounded when he discovered the cause of his “deafness”.
Darren McConachie (30) from Glasgow, said he was 24 when he had awoken in the middle of the night after experiencing a surge of pressure in the side of his head.
Then, to his horror, he felt something dislodge inside his ear and start to move.
Although he was on medication for the infection presumed to be causing his hearing problem, he told the Daily Mail he was unprepared for what turned out to be the root cause.
“I thought my ear had ruptured. The pressure kept building and building. It was unbearable.
“Then I felt something small and hard sort of pop out. I felt the object and I realised it was loose. I thought it was a piece of my inner ear – I was absolutely terrified.
“But when I looked at it, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A tiny piece of pink Lego, covered in wax.”
With the pain and pressure gone, and sound back in his left ear, his immediate relief turned to confusion.
“I hadn’t played with Lego for years…I didn’t really play with it after the age of four or five, I much preferred playing football.
“I don’t remember sticking the brick in my ear – but it had been lodged there for the best part of 20 years.”
He said he’d had no problems with his hearing until his early 20s.
A return visit to his his GP left the doctor speechless when he produced the Lego piece from his pocket and asked if it might have been the cause of his hearing issue.
“She was genuinely dumbfounded.
“She told me it wasn’t the first time she’d seen a piece of Lego in this circumstance but it was the first piece she’d ever heard of that had been buried in someone’s ear for so long.”
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