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

Ever since he was a toddler, the 11-year-old had been unable to hear anything on his right side and doctors said they were unable to help.

Then suddenly the reason for his problems became clear - when the end of a cotton bud popped out of his ear.

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His family believe that he must have poked the bud in the ear at the age of two and the tip must have broken off the plastic stem.

The result was that he has always struggled at school, was constantly forced to turn up the volume of the television and music, and became used to everyone shouting at him.

But now he is waking up to a whole world of noise - while his father Carsten is demanding to know why medical experts failed to identify the problem for so long.

Yesterday Mr Bartens, 45, told how Jerome was playing with his friends in a church hall when he heard a popping sound in his right ear.

He put his finger in and found the tip of a cotton wool bud.

"It was just incredible - his hearing returned to normal in an instant.

"He was cured as suddenly as he became deaf. I had always suspected Jerome had stuck something in his ear when he was little and that was causing the problem.

"But the doctors and hearing specialists said it was wax and he would probably grow out of it.

"I am amazed they didn't spot something as obvious as a cotton wool bud."

Mr Bartens, an HGV driver from Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, has now complained to his GP and hearing specialists who examined Jerome over the years.

He said: "It has held Jerome back in school and caused him problems in communicating with his friends."

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Mr Bartens - who also has two daughters Takita, 16, and Tiffany, 14 - says he is "thrilled" that Jerome's hearing has come back.

He said: "If he was playing in the garden I would have to shout for him eight or nine times before he would respond.

"But now he has 100 per cent hearing and he's just a normal boy again."

Jerome is due to be examined by hearing experts this week - and his father is taking along the cotton wool bud as proof of his "miracle cure".

"I can hear much better now and I think I'll be much happier at school now my ear does not ache all the time," said Jerome.

"I was just playing pool in the church hall when my ear made a popping noise. It was very strange at first to be able to hear everything.

"But now I'm getting used to it - it's great that people don't have to shout to me and that I don't have to turn my head all the time."