I wondered if anybody had any thoughts on this?

My youngest son is now 6. Since he first started school (about 2 years ago) I have suspected that he has had difficulty hearing. I have mentioned this to our old GP (we have since moved) and his school. His school nurse did a hearing test about 9 months ago and said everything was fine. His teacher said that she also thought he has hearing problems and associated speech problems and referred him on to a speech therapist. The speech therapist was less than helpful (another story!) but did refer him on to audiology for a full hearing test. This showed that he did have significant hearing loss and he was then referred on the the ear nose and throat department of our local hospital. The consultant he saw there told us that he has glue ear, which is fairly common and easily treated.

The problem is that because he has been untreated for so long the "glue" has damaged his ear drums so that one is wafer thin and the other is partially collapsed. The consultant wanted him to have grommets inserted and for it to be done quickly to halt any further damage and my son was in surgery 3 days later (fairly impressive for NHS!). Since his surgery (2 weeks ago) he does not appear to have any obvious improvement to his hearing but has a follow up appointment in December.

The nurse we saw for his pre op assesment showed us the graphs produced at his hearing tests and they were basically flat lines so it's not as if this was a borderline problem - he was almost completely deaf!

I have some ethical issues around litigating against NHS but obviously if he does turn out to have long term problems as a result of this problem being ignored for so long I want him to be compensated for this.

Hello My son who is now grown up was in the same situation as yours when he was young. he had the gromits in his ears, these do take some time to work their way out again. I think his took about six or eight weeks. His hearing now is near perfect and his speech has improved. So my advice would be to give it a little more time, things can get better.

"Sound" advice from happyolddog. Otitis media can cause substantial but transient hearing loss, and recurrant otitis media can lead to learning, speech and language problems.

When you next talk to your ENT consultant, think about the questions you want to ask him beforehand and ask him to explain the disease process invloved, and wether it is one infection or a series of recurrant infections. You might also want to ask him about your concerns regarding the ear drum, and perhaps the ossicles in the middle ear. Voice your concerns about any possible permanent damage.

ENT nurses can also be a fountain of knowledge.

NHS Direct has information about "glue ear" here:

NHS Direct - Health encyclopaedia -Glue ear

Hiya. My son who is 3 also has glue ear.. This was obvious by the amount of running ear and ear infections he got.. Nearly every fortnight. We were refered to the end when he was 2 and we were told he had moderate to severe hearing loss which we disagreed with totally.As he is a twin we can compare him with his brother and my son with the glue ears speach is much better. Anway Even if the gromits had been put in earlier it might not have made much difference. My son had gromits and both were out within 2 weeks. Both fell out. He now has one ear with a perforiate ear drum and the other is ok.. We have just been told that hes hearing is good and the fact that the other hearing tests were done when he was young gave a very innacurate result and a lot of worry to us as hes parents..

He still sees the consultant every 6 months because of the perforation but until hes older they cant establish if he has hearing loss in this ear as they just do a general both ear test together..

I also agree with kingsize. with a recent infection that my doctor was giving antbiotics after antibiotics one after another to stop hes ear running i rang up the ent nurse and she got me an appointment to see my sons consultant the next day.. Very impressive

Hi, I hope your son is recovering from his surgery. I wonder why the hearing tests were bad the second time but OK the first. Is it possible all the hearing loss occurred between the first and second tests, or that the problem was intermittent. Your ENT consultant may know. If the GP was reassured by the normal tests then it may be difficult to show he was at fault or that any delay was what caused any hearing loss in your son.

It sounds (sic) like he may make a good recovery in which case there is no consequence to any delay in diagnosis, making it pointless to persue matters through the courts anyway. I guess we should hope this is what actually happens!