Scots teen loses hearing after emergency surgery to save his life

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A teenager who went deaf in his right ear after emergency surgery to save his life has become the first person in Scotland to get a revolutionary hearing implant.

Ross Paterson, from Dunblane suffered from constant ear infections and was referred to an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist in 2020.

It was discovered he had a cholesteatoma, an abnormal collection of skin cells deep inside your ear, which is rare but if left untreated it leads to serious life-threatening complications, such as meningitis.The devastating impact was making life debilitating for the teen who said he was pulling away from social situations as interaction became tarnished with his friends due to lack of hearing.The now 15-year-old hopes his new hearing implant will be a game changer.Ross’ dad John said: “Ross has been incredible in dealing with it all and has been really brave.

He had to have the initial operation which resulted in hearing loss as we were told the cholesteatoma could perforate his membrane and cause meningitis and we could have lost him."He had to have the operation to remove it or he wouldn’t have survived.