COVENTRY, UNITED KINGDOM — A man in the UK developed a skull infection years after getting part of a cotton swab lodged in his ear.
According to a case study published in BMJ Case Reports, a 31-year-old from Coventry was rushed to the hospital after collapsing and suffering seizures.
Doctors diagnosed him with necrotising otitis externa, which is a bacterial infection that started in the ear and spread to the bone, targeting the lining of the skull.
The man had reported pain and discharge from his left ear ten days before he was hospitalized, along with nasty headaches, nausea, and vomiting.
More worryingly, he'd been starting to forget people's names, and later admitted he had been experiencing intermittent ear pain and hearing loss for the past five years.
A CT scan revealed two inflamed patches full of pus in the base of his skull, right beside his left ear canal.
Doctors went in to treat the infection, but instead found the tip of a cotton bud surrounded by wax.
They removed the Q-tip tip and put him on hospital rest and a two-month course of antibiotics, according to the Coventry Telegraph. The man is now infection-free, and will probably never use a cotton swab ever again.
