Ear Injury Lawyer

What is Ear Injury?

In order to understand ear injuries, it’s essential to understand both what the ear is and how it works.

There are three parts of the ear:

• Outer Ear
• Middle Ear
• Inner Ear

The ear isn’t just the two protuberances on either side of our heads, known as the outer ear, but of two other parts: the middle ear, and inner ear.
Sound enters the outer ear as sound waves travel from through the air; the outer ear collects the waves and essentially funnels it through the ear canal to the middle ear, into the a thin, speaker-like diaphragm called the eardrum. Within the eardrum are three tiny bones that also vibrate and thereby transmit sound to the inner ear, which then essentially amplifies the sound and translates them into electrical nerve impulses in the vestibulocochlear nerve, which sends signals to the brain.

There’s a bit more to it than that, but the added byproduct of the ears is that not only do they transmit these signals to the brain, but they are also critical in supplying the balance necessary for two-legged humans to balance correctly and stand up straight.

Types of Ear Injuries

So not only is there the obvious problems of possible hearing loss in the case of an ear injury, but there also becomes a possible loss of balance when key parts of the ear, like the eardrum, ear canal, ossicles, cochlea, or the vestibular nerve, are injured.

Causes of Ear Injury

• Loud Noises
• Penetrating Direct blows to the ear or head
• Sudden, significant change in air pressure

When an injury victim tears the eardrum or damages the inner ear, the ear can be damaged forever, or it can be temporary. There are almost unlimited types of violent injury that can also injure the ear, but some of the most severe and insidious injuries can come not from obvious trauma, but from something far less obvious.

Workers without proper ear protection and anyone who subjects him or herself to constant loud noises are in danger of permanently risking ear injury and permanent damage. Likewise, young people exposed to loud noises daily or over a long period of time can permanently injure their ears. This exposure to noise is labeled ‘acoustic trauma’ or ‘noise-induced hearing loss.’

Noise causes the tiny hairs in the cochlea, one of the three bones in the inner ear, to become damaged. The damage can be caused by either a single loud noise — like an explosion — or it can be caused by loud noise repeated over a long period of time.

But damage can also be caused by changes in water or air pressure. Airplane flights or underwater exploration can cause ear injury. The ears are connected to the sinuses through the Eustachian tube. The Eustachian tube is a tube that links the middle ear to the back of the throat, just behind the nose. The tube allows the equalization of the air pressure in the middle ear to the outside air pressure by allowing outside air to reach the middle ear. It’s essentially how your ears pop when you are descending from an altitude. In extreme instances, pressure can build dangerously and fill the middle ear with fluid or blood, eventually causing the eardrum to burst or rupture.

Injuries will depend on what occurred and to which part of the ear; how those injuries are treated — and how long hearing or balance will be impaired — will also depend on the same criteria. The most common type of therapy is called vestibular therapy. But some ear injury victims might need permanent hearing aids; some may experience temporary or permanent deafness.

Recovering from an ear injury can be a traumatic and confusing time. You may not be able to work and you may need assistance in during daily life. Unfortunately, you will also be paying medical bills in order to complete a rapid recovery at the same time you will need assistance.

Having an attorney with a focus in head and ear injury litigation is critical in providing you the financial compensation you deserve. You will not pay a thing unless you win your lawsuit. If you win or settle your lawsuit, The Doan Law Firm will charge a percentage of the compensation amount, leaving you free from the costs of the actual court case.

The Doan Law Firm can assist in determining damages owed you after a severe head or ear injury. The Doan Law Firm knows that accidents don’t wait for daylight hours to happen. Call us today; we’re here to answer your phone call any time, day or night, at (800) 349-0000.