A character in my book is standing only inches from a handgun when it’s fired. She’s already sustained some hearing damage from earlier gunfights, but this one is so close it busts her eardrums. Her ears are bleeding. Would she ever be able to hear again? Would her ears have bled from the noise? Would she be currently partially or completely deafened?
Thanks!
My mother’s eardrum burst years ago when she had an ear infection and never got it checked out. She can still hear, although in recent years she has become (in my opinion) pretty much deaf on one side. I’m not sure if it’s the same ear or not. Anyway her hearing was fine for years. So bursting the ear drum alone does not cause deafness.
I perforated my right eardrum in a diving accident a year ago. At first I couldn’t really hear out if it (maybe 30~50% of normal), but now my hearing is back to how it was. Again, I only tore mine a little, but I can tell you that the eardrum can repair itself. My doctor told me that what he was most concerned about was my eardrum scarring as it healed, which can lead to permanent hearing loss.
Bleeding? Well, I didn’t bleed from my ears, but I had a lot of nasty fluid ooze out. A lot of water was forced into my ear at a high pressure, and my body just purged itself of this water over the next two days. Nasty. …and terribly painful. Don’t try this at home, kids.
I am a former audiologist…
The amount of hearing loss caused by a perforated eardrum depends on how big a perforation it is. If it’s the size of a pin prick, the hearing loss will probably be very mild since the rest of the membrane is in tact, therefore can vibrate in response to sound and pass the vibration down the mechanical line to the middle ear ossicles (bones). If there is more hole than eardrum, than the resulting hearing loss will most likely be to a moderate degree (can hear most sounds within the range of 40 to 70db). Even if the eardrum is non-existent, the middle ear ossicles can still respond to sound and do their job (if they have not been affected/damaged) - they just don’t do it as well as when they have an eardrum to “amplify” the vibrations.
And scarring of a healed eardrum should not cause any significant hearing loss despite what Marky’s MD said. I’ve seen many a eardrum scarred patient fall well within the lines if normal hearing. It’s like scarred skin - it may not look “normal” when somone takes a peek, but it still provides the surface area to do the job it is meant for.
As Marky says, perforated eardrums can heal on their own. If they don’t, a surgeon can patch them.
I’m told I had an ear infection and a ruptured eardrum when I was about 1 year old. And then when I was in High School I broke the other one in a stupid fashion. I still was able to pass the Aviation Cadet physical exam.
Is this character in an enclosed space? While it’s dramatic, I’m not convinced a handgun would cause broken eardrums. (At least not both). The real risk is nerve damage in the middle ear, and no, you don’t completely recover from that.
By the way, if you have a hole in your eardrum, do you have to worry about dirty water (like from a shower, or swimming) getting in there and maybe causing an infection?
I’ve had a couple of incidents comparable to having a gun fired in close range to my ears. One was the explosion of a plastic soft drink bottle filled with Oxygen and Acetylene, which detonated approximately five feet from me. This was inside a large machine shop (yes, it was in a high school class). My ears rang for about an hour, and I had muffled hearing for the rest of the day. In another incident I had a twelve gauge shotgun fired about three feet from my head inside a normal-sized bedroom. It wasn’t even as bad as the acetylene bomb. I don’t know if either of these events ruptured an eardrum, but my hearing was back to normal within a day on both cases. I think I have lost some hearing over the years though, but it’s probably more from loud music, headphones, and power equipment. I can hear pretty well, but I have trouble telling what people are saying if there is significant background noise.
I’m not a doctor, but if I’m not mistaken, the infamous “tubes” that are put in children’s ears to relieve pressure from chronic ear infections go through the eardrum. Are there any long-term hearing problems caused by this? I haven’t heard of studies along these lines, but I would be interested to hear… so to speak.
Thanks for your answers!
Valtonen HJ, Qvarnberg YH, Nuutinen J. of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Kuopio University Hospital, Finland recently published “Otological and audiological outcomes five years after tympanostomy in early childhood” in Laryngoscope 2002 Apr;112(4):669-75. I think you can find it at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12150521&dopt=Abstract
I too, had a ruptured eardrum. It came as a result of an ear infection, which I seem especially prone to have. It was not comfortable, but it did relieve some of the pressure and pain. I could also blow air out of my ear. Not enough to put out a candle, but enough to feel it.
The ear healed up, but even today, and likely for the rest of my life, I hear ringing in my left ear.
I’ll just add regarding the OP…
The damage done to your character’s hearing is only partly due to the eardrum perforation. As already stated here a few times, the eardrum perforation may heal on it’s own, thereby returning to its normal functional state. The damage done to her inner ear, however - the damage to her inner ear hair cells - is permanent. People exposed to a very loud explosive sound so close to the head are guaranteed some permanent hearing loss (mosl likely from a moderate to even profound degree in various frequencies, but most likely in the highs) on the proximal side as well as the other ear to a lesser degree. The healing of the eardrum will cause some improved accuity (especially in the low frequency range) than that measured directly after the incident, but the underlying nerve damage will never repair itself.
I’ve stood next to a lot of handguns being fired. I can picutre someone rupturing ONE eardrum, but not both. And for that one to be ruptured I would think you would have to be standing pretty close (inches away, as you described, would be more than close enough) with the ear facing the gun. The only way I can picture both ears being deafened is if you are in some kind of enclosure.
My wife ruptured her eardrum twice while battling ear infections. Both times it healed fine.
People tend to lose upper and lower frequencies first. It is possible to have considerable hearing loss and not really notice it much because you can still hear midrange frequencies, which is where the human voice has most of its energy. Expect your character to be unable to hear things like high pitched bird chirps before she notices other hearing loss.
engineer_comp_geek:
I beg to differ regarding this statement…
People tend to lose upper and lower frequencies first.
Since the inner ear hair cells most sensitive to low frequencies are near the apex of the cochlea (further down the system), they are the most unaffected in the end. When it comes to hearing loss due to noise exposure - burst extremes (explosions) or lower levels over time (working in a loud factory) - the highs are always the first to go.
But I do agree with you regarding the point that many people can have significant hearing loss in said frequencies for years without even knowing it. It is usually family members who note that they are having to repeat themselves in order for Daddy-O to understand (many consonant sounds such as “s”, “sh”, “ch” and “t” fall into the high frequency range while vowel sounds remain in the low). A majority of my former patients came into my office and began their relationship with me by saying, “I can HEAR people, I just can’t always understand WHAT they say”.
I’ve had both of mine burst due to inner ear infections related to my diabetes. Allegedly, my hearing recovered nearly 100%.
It can in one. I knew a cop who had a .44 Magnum go off next to his left ear, and he lost the drum. Except, unlike my burstings, he had very poor healing and lost a lot of hearing - maybe 75% or more - in that ear.