Cotton swabs kill!

Posted on February 7, 2008
Filed Under Health |

According to Quebec’s (that would be in Canada) coroner’s office, a cotton swab in the ear can result in your death. Many people use cotton swabs to clean their ears. It has been said many times that the swabs should not be used this way but other than the possibility of hearing loss this is the first time that someone claims to have died from this practice; actually, to be more correct, this is the first time that I have heard of someone dying because of using a cotton swab to clean his ear. According to a story posted on CBC’s website,

Montreal resident Daniel St-Pierre died in March 2007, two days after he accidentally pierced his eardrum with a cotton swab.

St-Pierre, 43, died of meningitis-induced intracranial complications caused by a bacterial ear infection that he developed after accidentally piercing his eardrum with a cotton swab while trying to treat a painful earache.

Now, clearly this poor man wasn’t just trying to clean his ear but actually he used the cotton swab to treat his ear pain. I am not sure exactly how he figured that this was a proper way to eliminate the pain. At any rate, I would follow the doctors’ advice and avoid the habit of using cotton swabs to clean my ears but honestly, this chances of someone dying because of doing this are probably very, very low. In fact, I would bet that you are more likely to get hit by lightening than die from sticking a cotton swab in your ear. Shit happens though!

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