Boy, 11, who was deaf for 9 years regains hearing after cotton bud pops out of his ear

A boy who has been partially deaf for nine years was suddenly cured - when a cotton wool bud popped out of his ear.

Jerome Bartens was diagnosed as deaf in his right ear when he was just two and has struggled at school ever since.

But Jerome, now 11, was suddenly able to hear clearly again as he played with friends in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.



He said he heard a popping sound, then found the tip of a cotton wool bud in his ear.

His family believe Jerome must have put the bud in his ear as a toddler and the centimetre-long cotton tip came off the plastic stem.

Jerome has kept the waxy bud as a souvenir of his nine years of silence.