Danielle's ear pain was caused by a ladybird

Ear pain was ladybird in woman’s ear…

Danielle Eccles’ story about how a ladybird crawled into her ear and caused her pain for three years appears in the DAILY MAIL newspaper. Danielle's ear pain was caused by a ladybird

Sister site Featureworld is used to dealing with all sorts of unusual stories. But this ladybird story must be one of the oddest ones covered…!

Danielle, 28, an administrator, first saw her GP two years ago to complain her right ear was blocked. A few days earlier she had woken in the night after feeling an insect crawl into her ear.
But her GP assured her there was nothing in her ear and Danielle left the surgery believing she had dreamt the nightmare.
However, over the next three years she suffered from persistent deafness and pain in her ear. In total she visited seven different nurses and doctors at her practice and paid out for 12 prescriptions for her ear – ranging from various ear drops to antibiotics.
The pain and blockage was so bad, Danielle, who is married, was she was forced to take time off work – before she had never had a day off sick.
She had to explain to work colleagues that she was deaf in her right ear and sit so she could listen to people during conferences. And when she went to dinner parties, she had to sit so her left ear was facing people or she could not hear what they were saying.
She was finally referred to the Ear Nose and Throat specialist after the head of a ladybird fell out of her ear onto her hand.
And recently the rest of the ladybird’s body was finally removed by an Ear Nose and throat consultant at her local hospital.
Danielle said: “I am angry this wasn’t spotted earlier. It sounds funny when you tell people you’ve had an insect removed from your ear. But the truth is I have been through hell. I’ve been made to feel I was paranoid and making a fuss about nothing and I feel I should have been referred for a proper examination much earlier.
“it is a huge relief to be able to hear properly. But I still cannot believe so many doctors failed to spot the ladybird which after all is just about the brightest spotty bug in the UK.”

Danielle’s unusual story appeared in the news section of the Daily Mail newspaper.

* Our thanks goes to Dr Azhar Shaida a consultant ENT surgeon from The Harley St ENT Clinic for his professional explanation on how this might have happened to Danielle.

He said: ‘It would appear the ladybird was hiding behind some wax. A GP surgery does not possess the same level of equipment that an ENT specialist department has so it appears when doctors looked into the ear all they saw was wax. Because the insect body was encased in wax, it would have stopped the air getting to it so it wouldn’t have degraded.’

If you need expert advice you can contact the clinic here: ENT specialists

Read Danielle’s story in the Daily Mail.

Do you have a wacky and unusual story for the press? Sell your quirky story here: Selling a Story.

Alison Smith-Squire

Alison Smith-Squire is a writer, journalist and media agent selling exclusive real life stories to newspapers, magazines and TV. She owns the sell my story website Featureworld.co.uk, which was set up to help ordinary people sell their stories to the press.

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