The story of a man in China who ruptured his eardrum and goes deaf after kissing he and his girlfriend engaged in a passionate 10-minute smooch has gone insanely viral on social media.

A media outlet in Hangzhou reported that on Chinese Valentine’s Day on August 22, the man and his girlfriend locked their lips in a passionate embrace beside the scenic West Lake in China’s eastern Zhejiang province. During the kiss, the man said he heard a bubbling sound and felt a sharp pain in his left ear which left him unable to hear properly. The couple then rushed to a hospital where doctors discovered his eardrum was perforated after a medical examination. He was told that it would take him two months to recover completely. The doctors also prescribed some antibiotics to fix the problem but experts say in serious cases, surgery is required.

Doctors said that passionate kissing can sometimes lead to a rapid change in air pressure inside the ear. This, combined with the heavy breathing of a partner, causes an imbalance leading to a puncture, the report stated.

kissing

The incident has captivated Chinese social media platforms, as the story has received over 1 million likes and 400,000 comments on Douyin alone, according to the report. "The world is so big that it is home to a myriad of weird things," one person said online. Another observer said: "It turns out that love really can deafen the ear with its roar." "This is why I don't want to find a partner. It's too dangerous," commented another.

For most of the patients, the underlying cause of such ruptures is tympanitis, according to a post by Zhang Jun, a doctor from the otolaryngology department of Mudanjiang Forestry Hospital in the northeastern Heilongjiang province. In less serious cases, a course of antibiotics and keeping the ear dry usually fixes the problem but in more extreme examples of perforation, immediate surgery is required.

According to the media outlet, this is not the first time such a thing has happened. Last month, a similar event occurred when a couple were watching TV at home in Guangdong province, southern China. In 2008, a young woman from southern China partially lost her hearing after her boyfriend ruptured her eardrum during an excessively passionate kiss, according to a report. The girl in her 20s from Zhuhai, in southern Guangdong province, went to hospital completely deaf in her left ear. Apart from kissing, other behaviours that may cause a perforated eardrum include fighting, road accidents, diving, and flying.

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