In this video, Professor Larry B. Mellick, MD, of Georgia Regents University, explains and demonstrates how to remove an eraser from a person’s ear:
Professor Mellick’s biography remarks of him:
“His current academic ranks include being Professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics. His medical training was accomplished in the United States Army where he attained a rank of Lieutenant Colonel before being honorably discharged.”
Professor Mellick [pictured here] also produced a video about the medical indication called ‘the Terry Thomas sign”. Text accompanying the video gives basic background info:
“The late English comedian, Terry Thomas, had a large gap between his front teeth that actually turned out to be a trademark of sorts for him. The gap between the scaphoid bone and lunate bone that occurs when there is a traumatic ligamentous disruption has been named after Mr. Thomas in recognition of this large gap between his front teeth.”
Erasers can, almost often, be found in ears. A 1987 medical study makes that point:
“Foreign bodies of the ears and nose in childhood,” M. Douglas Baker, Pediatric Emergency Care, vol. 3, n. 2, June 1987, pp. 67-70. The author explains:
“The items most commonly removed from children’s external auditory canals were roaches, paper wads, toy parts, earring parts, hair beads, eraser tips, and food. Foreign bodies most often found in the nose included hair beads, toy parts, paper wads, and food.”
The study then makes a generalization [but does so in a way that may be confusing to persons not experienced at reading medical literature — we have used bold lettering to highlight the abstruse passage]:
“Approximately 90% of all foreign bodies were able to be removed without significant complications by emergency department personnel with simple equipment. Those who required referral for otorhinolaryngologic intervention had more often failed at self or parental home foreign body removal attempts than those who were able to managed successfully by emergency department personnel.”