A 28-year-old woman became deaf in one ear after she wore earphones for prolonged hours and had a bad habit of staying up late.
According to Oriental Daily, Xiao Jing from Taiwan would watch drama series to relieve stress after work every day. She always wore earphones to watch them during her commute home after work.
After a month of doing this, Xiao Jing suddenly noticed that there was no sound coming from her left earpiece. She tried changing her earphones twice, but she still couldn’t hear anything from her left ear.
Source: Shutterstock
She realised that it wasn’t a problem with her earphones and immediately went to seek medical treatment. The doctor then diagnosed her with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL), commonly known as sudden deafness.
The doctor said that Xiao Jing was lucky to have gone to the doctor in time. If she had delayed any longer, she might not be able to hear in her left ear again.
After being treated with steroids and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), Xiao Jing got back 80% of her hearing in the left ear and has returned to her normal daily routine.
Dr Zhang from the Department of Otolaryngology, Luodong Bo-ai Hospital, said that the cause of “sudden deafness” is mostly unknown, but may be related to stress, viral infection, autoimmune disease, drugs, trauma or tumour.
Source: WebMD
He said that if a person experiences sudden deafness, they must seek medical treatment within three days so that there’s a higher chance of recovery.
He also pointed out that “sudden deafness” is not limited to the elderly as young adults who are constantly tired and always staying up late can suffer from it too. Those who have been diagnosed with “sudden deafness” before should adjust their schedules so that they can rest and sleep more to avoid it from happening again.
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