This is just downright unbelievable. When Jerome Bartens was two years old he  jammed a cotton swab in his ear and the tip broke off. No one noticed. He spent the next nine years being deaf in one ear. All the specialists and doctors his parents brought him too told them it was most likely because of an over abundance of ear wax and that he’d probably grow out of it.

That theory got shot right out of Jerome’s ear one day, along with the wax encrusted cotton swab tip that had been sitting in his ear canal for just shy of a decade.

And just as suddenly Jerome could hear. His parents are understandably upset that all the medical professionals they brought him to over the years failed to see the big giant cotton swab embedded in his ear.

The Daily Mail has it:

Yesterday Mr Bartens, 45, told how Jerome was playing with his friends in a church hall when he heard a popping sound in his right ear.

He put his finger in and found the tip of a cotton wool bud.

“It was just incredible - his hearing returned to normal in an instant.

“He was cured as suddenly as he became deaf. I had always suspected Jerome had stuck something in his ear when he was little and that was causing the problem.

“But the doctors and hearing specialists said it was wax and he would probably grow out of it.

“I am amazed they didn’t spot something as obvious as a cotton wool bud.”

Mr Bartens, an HGV driver from Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, has now complained to his GP and hearing specialists who examined Jerome over the years.

He said: “It has held Jerome back in school and caused him problems in communicating with his friends.”

Link [The Daily Mail]