Tuesday 29 January 2008

Experts fail to spot boy's deafness caused by 'cotton bud'

When he was two years old Jerome Bartens was diagnosed as deaf in his right ear.

Now after nine years and Drs and specialists who believed it was wax and he might ‘grow out of it’, it turns out to have been caused by the tip of a cotton bud he stuck in there as a toddler. It popped out whilst playing with friends.

Apparently he has struggled with lessons his whole school career because of this.

Belief is all very well and good. It is highly thought of in religious circles. But when it is possible to test something empirically surely reliance on pure belief is not necessarily, as they say, ‘best practice’.

Every Dr’s surgery I have ever been in has the equipment to look in your ear.

Why on earth didn’t someone out of all the Drs and Specialists who saw him think to actually look?

2 comments:

jams o donnell said...

Hmm if specialists thought wax was the problem I wonder why they didn't try to syringe his ear.....

CFD Ed said...

An excellent point! It's usually quick, easy and effective.

One does wonder what exactly they were doing in exchange for their, no doubt generous, earnings.