A UK woman who suffered inexplicable pain and deafness for three years has suddenly been cured, after finding a ladybird stuck inside her ear.
Essex woman Danielle Eccles, 28, suffered severe earaches that began with a tickling sensation in 2009.
"A few nights earlier I'd felt sure a bug had crawled in my ear and was so relieved when my GP said he couldn't see any insect in there," she told the Daily Mail.
Mrs Eccles' doctors prescribed eardrops, antibiotics and painkillers in a bid to cure the pain but it did not subside.
It was not until June this year that the problem was identified when a ladybird's head fell out of her ear after she used eardrops.
She was referred to a hospital Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist, who removed the rest of the perfectly preserved insect within five minutes.
Dr Azhar Shaida, a consultant ENT surgeon from The Harley St ENT Clinic, said it appeared the ladybird was hidden behind some wax.
"A GP surgery does not possess the same level of equipment that an ENT specialist department has, so it appears when doctors looked into the ear, all they saw was wax," Dr Shaida said.
"Because the insect body was encased in wax, it would have stopped the air getting to it so it wouldn't have degraded."
Mrs Eccles is now making a formal complaint to the surgery for not sending her to a specialist earlier.
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