14 DAY TRIAL // Doctors in China were amazed after discovering a fully developed dandelion growing inside the ear canal of a 16-month-old girl.
The case was reported in Benjing, China, after the girl's parents took their 16-month-old daughter to the hospital complaining of earache and excessive scratching. The child had been complaining of ear problems for the last 4 months, but nothing seemed to be wrong so they carried on believing it was nothing to worry about.
The infant's scratching and complaints got worse and the mother decided to take a better look in the child's ear. She saw a dandelion in the ear canal and after a few failed attempts to get it out she took her daughter to the hospital, according to Daily Mail.
The doctors discovered a fully grown 0.8-inch (2-cm) flower completely filling the infant's ear canal. Because of the warm and humid conditions, the dandelion had the perfect environment to develop and it could have had serious effects on the girl's health.
After surgically removing the flowered dandelion, the doctors told parents that the plant had been growing in the girl’s ear for months and if it hadn't been removed, it could have caused life-long damage to the kid's hearing functions. “Even the slightest bit of pressure put her at risk for internal bleeding so it had to come out,” the physician handling the case explained.
Ear doctors have been removing weird things from people's ears for a time now, finding bugs, pebbles, teeth or even worms. One woman experiencing severe headaches discovered she had her ears filled with flesh-eating worms after a trip to Peru. Another case involved a woman from China that had a spider living in her ear canal.
People usually take their ears for granted, not being aware of the sensibility of the organ. Children, in particular, tend to stuff things into their ears or nostrils all the time, and without parent supervision those things can cause permanent damage.