An elderly British man's hearing was restored after it was discovered that a piece of an old earbud had been stuck in his ear for five years.
According to the BBC, Wallace Lee, from Weymouth in Dorset, put his hearing problems down to a career working in the noisy aviation industry or old rugby injuries. He decided to visit a doctor after buying a home endoscope kit that helped him spot a small white object. Mr Lee said he was delighted and that it was an "instant relief" when the unusual blockage was finally removed.
Mr. Wallace Lee is 66 years old and a former navy engineer. He believes the object got stuck during a plane journey.
The Royal Navy veteran told the BBC, "Five years ago, when I was visiting my family in Australia, I bought these little earplugs that you can put different attachments in, depending on the noise you want to phase out on an aircraft. One of these little attachments had lodged in there and it had been in there ever since."
Mr Wallace and his wife began to worry that he was going deaf as a result of his progressive hearing loss. He purchased a home endoscopic kit, which enabled him to see a little white object in his ear.
After that, Mr Wallace visited an ear, nose, and throat surgeon, who was able to remove the offending object.
"The doctor tried to suck it out at first, but it wouldn't move at all because it had been in there that long with the buildup of hard ear wax," Mr Lee explained.
"So he got these miniature tweezers, which they put down this other tube into the ear canal... I could actually feel him tugging, and all of a sudden it went pop.
"Instantly I could hear everything in the room. The fog that was in my head for all those years went and left, and I could hear perfectly well.
