A UK man, Wallace Lee, with hearing loss finds earbud had been stuck in his ear for 5 years

A UK man has revealed how he feared he was going deaf — just to discover part of an earbud had been stuck in his ear for five years.

Former navy engineer Wallace Lee, 66, told Bournemouth News & Picture Service that he initially blamed his hearing loss on the 24 years he’d spent working next to the roar of military helicopters.

With the problem not only hurting his hearing but this balance — and golf game — Lee tried everything, including getting it checked by a doctor, who missed the buried bud because of a buildup of earwax.

At his “wits’ end,” he bought his own Bluetooth-connected endoscope — and spotted something in his left ear, but “had no idea what it was.” So he went to the hospital.

“At first the doctor tried to suction it but it was stuck too deep, so he got these miniature crocodile tweezers,” he told the local news service.

“He tugged and all of a sudden it went, ‘pop’, and I had clarity again,” he said.

The shock of instantly being able to “hear perfectly again” was then matched by the surprise of seeing the surgeon holding up the wax-covered plastic part that appears to have come free from a noise-blocking earbud he had put in years ago.