The seed
increased in volume to such an extent that it was only by
surgical interference that it could be extracted, and then such
serious consequences followed that death resulted. Albers reports
an instance in which a pin introduced into the ear issued from
the pharynx.
Confusion of diagnosis is occasionally noticed in terrified or
hysteric persons. Lowenberg was called to see a child of five who
had introduced a button into his left ear. When he saw the child
it complained of all the pain in the right ear, and he naturally
examined this ear first but found nothing to indicate the
presence of a foreign body. He examined the ear supposed to be
healthy and there found the button lying against the tympanum.
This was explained by the fact that the child was so pained and
terrified by the previous explorations of the affected ear that
rather than undergo them again he presented the well ear for
examination. In the British Medical Journal for 1877 is an
account of an unjustified exploration of an ear for a foreign
body by an incompetent physician, who spent a half hour in
exploration and manipulation, and whose efforts resulted in the
extraction of several pieces of bone. The child died in one and a
half hours afterward from extreme hemorrhage, and the medical
bungler was compelled to appear before a coroner's jury in
explanation of his ignorance.
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