COVENTRY, UNITED KINGDOM — A man in the UK developed a skull infection years after getting part of a cotton swab lodged in his ear.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />The man had reported pain and discharge from his left ear ten days before he was hospitalized, along with nasty headaches, nausea, and vomiting. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />A CT scan revealed two inflamed patches full of pus in the base of his skull, right beside his left ear canal.<br /><br />Doctors went in to treat the infection, but instead found the tip of a cotton bud surrounded by wax. <br /><br />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.
