Injuries are a major source of childhood emergency department and hospital admissions. The most recent accident statistics from the National Safety Council, the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, and other sources tell us that injuries are the leading cause of death in children and young adults. According to the CDC, approximately 12,000 children and young adults ages 1 to 19 years die from unintentional injuries each year.
Often, children are absorbed in their own immediate interests and can be ignorant of their surroundings. They only have limited knowledge of the environment because of their lack of experience, and they are not aware of the consequences of the many new situations that they encounter. Falls are the leading cause of non-fatal injury for kids. Children ages 19 and under account for about 8,000 fall-related visits to hospital emergency rooms every day. Each year, about a hundred children are killed, and 254,000 are injured as a result of bicycle-related accidents.
These accidents can be anything from a fall to choking on food to foreign objects getting inside their ears. These figures definitely need to be taken seriously, especially since the ones involved here are mostly children. They’re curious and don’t have the mental capability to be more cautious. One wrong move could lead to a devastating injury or even worse, a fatal accident. They still need someone to look after them and make sure that they don’t do anything that might hurt them.
Kids are kids, and parents would definitely not want to take the fun away from them, but they also want to keep them safe and sound. Kids are always getting up to some sort of mischief, but this particular kid, Louis King, managed to take that to the next level.
While playing around, he managed to get something lodged up in his ear, and he waited an entire week before he told his mother about it. Apparently, Louis had been playing around with a pencil when he stuck it in his ear, and it broke off. So, for one week, he had a foreign object stuck up his ear.
Louis was rushed to a hospital where a doctor in the emergency room looked him over and searched his ear to see what it was. Louis described the pencil, saying it was only a very small piece. Understandably, the doctor was worried and rushed to get the item removed because leaving it in for too long could eventually cause infections or even deafness.
The doctor was confident enough to say, “Removing the pencil will be a piece of cake.” The doctor tried different medical tools to safely remove what was inside Louis’s ear. In just a matter of minutes, the doctor was able to make good progress in getting it out. But as the doctor dug further into his ear, he realized that Louis had been lying about what exactly got stuck in his ear, and the real culprit was pretty unbelievable.
When he finally pulled it out, the doctor even noticed that Louis’s eardrum had completely disappeared. Luckily, eardrums regrow over time, and his should be back to normal within six weeks. Curious to see what was really inside Louis’s ear? It’s really difficult to believe, and it’s hilarious how Louis lied about it for so long, in such detail.
Louis had a watch battery stuck in his ear for a week. For some reason, the poor boy didn’t let his family know about what happened to him until after a week. Good thing that it wasn’t too late for the boy’s hearing to recover. A foreign object in the ear can cause pain, infection, and hearing loss.
Usually, you know if an object is stuck in your ear, but small children may not be aware of it. If an object becomes lodged in the ear, don’t probe the ear with a tool such as a cotton swab or a matchstick. You risk pushing the object further in and damaging the ear. Remove the object if possible. If the object is clearly visible, pliable, and can be grasped easily with tweezers, gently remove it.
Try using gravity. Tilt the head to the affected side to try and dislodge the object. Try using oil for an insect. If the foreign object is an insect, tilt the person’s head so that the ear with the insect is upward. Try to float the insect out by pouring mineral oil, olive oil, or baby oil into the ear. The oil should be warm but not hot.
Don’t use oil to remove an object other than an insect. Don’t use this method for a child if the ear tubes are in place, or if you think the eardrum may be affected. Signs and symptoms of an impacted eardrum are pain, bleeding, or discharge from the ear.
Try washing the object out. Use a rubber bulb ear syringe and warm water to irrigate the object out of the canal. Again, provide a note: ear tubes are in place, and you don’t suspect the eardrum is damaged.
Remember to always keep children safe from any harm and to make sure their surroundings are free from anything that could be hazardous to them.
