(WHDH) — Doctors treating a 9-year-old boy who was complaining about an unusual feeling and a bizarre buzzing noise in his right ear were shocked when they found a tick lodged in his eardrum.
The Connecticut boy visited Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital to report the symptoms but he was not complaining of any pain and could hear normally, according to a CNN report citing the New Journal of Medicine.
Upon peering into the boy’s ear, Dr. Erik Waldman wrote in the journal that he saw a tick that appeared to be implanted in the eardrum and surrounded by inflamed tissue.
Waldman says he tried to remove the tick but it wouldn’t budge because it was dug in so deep.
Dr. David Kasle, who co-authored the report with Waldman, says the bloodsucking part of the tick’s mouth was gripping the eardrum.
The doctors were unable to pull the tick off because it would risk tearing the boy’s tympanic membrane. Instead, the boy was sedated and a delicate surgery was performed.
“We took him to the operating room, put him to sleep, and we were able to use pretty fine utensils to remove the capitulum of the tick,” Kasle said.
The boy was prescribed eardrops to help heal abrasions caused by the tick.
Doctors say it’s “pretty unusual” to find ticks embedded in an eardrum.
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