Kiss Of Deaf : Woman Loses Hearing From Kiss

Medical experts say a kiss on the ear by a 4-year-old girl has caused a unique chain of events that has severely damaged her mother's hearing.
It was a kiss from a child, an ex-pression of unconditional love. But for one Long Island mom,  a big, suctioning, squeaky smooch on her left ear from her then-4-year-old has left shocking permanent damage.
"It was a long sucking kiss in my ear. I couldn't push her away. I was almost frozen. When she stopped, and the kiss ended, I realized I had no hearing in that ear. Nothing," the mother said. "When she was finished, I had no hearing in that ear. The hearing slowly came back but with screeching noises in my ear," she said, referring to sounds known medically as tinnitus. Although some of her hearing has returned, allowing her to hear in muffled tones, the tinnitus has remained.
"Until that time - and I'd had it tested - my hearing was perfect," the mother said.
Her doctors were mystified. After months, they referred the Hicksville, N.Y. homemaker to the "Guru of Hearing," Professor Levi Reiter, Chair of Audiology at Hofstra University.
Reiter said that like a vacuum cleaner or plunger, the daughter's suctioning kiss had unintentionally pulled her mom's eardrum out toward the ear canal, detaching tiny ligaments and nerves.
Reiter is publishing his findings in the National Hearing Journal later this summer, predicting his patient may get better as years go by. 

In investigating this, Reiter said he has found only one similar case, from the 1950s, but he thinks many others who are unaware, especially children, may have suffered hearing loss from a direct kiss into the ear.