Blown Ear Drum

Question
Hi Tom My 11 year old son just perforated his ear drum when landing a front 1.5 full twist off 3m. His arms weren't fully extended and his head was turned to the side...oops :) It has been two weeks and the hole is too large to heal so they will have to graft it. We have an ENT appointment next week. Do you know of any earplugs or solutions to fixing his ear until the summer. He is a Nationally Carded athlete, diving is his life. Nationals are in Montreal this year (which is big for us BC'ers) and he really needs to practice in order to qualify.... waiting 6 months for this to heal doesn't seem fair. Any suggestions????

Answer
Lisa -

I am sorry to hear of your son's diving accident. I have had divers experience this wrong landing in the past and have been told the same thing about the length of time they are out of the pool.

I have heard of divers using a molded ear plug using a paraffin wax that completely seals out water from entering the ear canal. After insertion of the plug, the divers also wore a tight fitting swim cap to help keep the water out. If you choose to pursue this method you should get permission from his doctor so you get the right wax material. He cannot let any water in his ear as it could cause an infection. The other problem with his perforated ear is the fact that divers go deep in the water. The pressure on the ear this causes could be an additional problem the doctor may not want him to experience. The ear canal gets squeezed from this pressure which may cause the perforation to get worse and make him be out of the water longer.

In the mean time, I hope your diving team has dry land equipment so he can continue his training on dry board and trampoline. Since you live in B.C., I am sure you can find this equipment if his coach does not have access to it. I know that there is great dry land equipment in Victoria.

Good luck. Hope all this helps.