Woman could HEAR her eyes move, her heart beat and her food digest

September 3, 2015  20:58

The sounds in Rachel Pyne's head were deafening and inescapable.

Her footsteps rumbled through her head like thunder. 

She could hear the thump of her heartbeat, her food digesting and even her eyes moving.

The 27-year-old began to hear her body's internal sounds in March last year.

She was examined by around nine doctors and specialists all over the US, most of whom attributed her condition to migraines.

But, the cause of Miss Pyne's intolerable symptoms, was in fact, a rare condition known as superior semicircular canal dehiscence, or SSCD.

A hole developed between her inner ear and brain, experts told her.

She said: 'It was crazy. I could hear my eyes swoosh around as I moved them back and forth, like moving your hand in water.'

She said before long she began to lose her balance and suffer debilitating dizziness and nausea.  

'I couldn't fall asleep. I would lie there and wish that my head would stop spinning,' she said. 'It was chaos in my ears.'

Because SSCD is such a rare condition, affecting an estimated one person in every 500,000, patients often see several doctors before receiving a correct diagnosis, if ever.

Miss Pyne, a photographer from Merrillville, Indiana, was examined by at least nine doctors and specialists all over the country, most of whom attributed her symptoms to migraines.

'One doctor told me I was just going to have to live with it,' Pyne said. 'That was devastating.'  

Dr Quinton Gopen, an ear surgeon in the department of head and neck surgery at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, said: 'Basically, it's a hole that develops between the inner ear and the brain.

'That region of the inner ear has sealed compartments with little fluid chambers, and occasionally a hole will develop in the bone and allow for these problems to arise.'

He said due to the nature of the condition, misdiagnosis is common.  

'A lot of these patients are seeking psychiatric help because they're just mentally worn out,' Dr Gopen said.

'They can't escape the condition and it really kind of grinds them down.'

After seven months, Miss Pyne had almost given up until she came across an online support group launched by a former patient of Dr Gopen and his colleague, Dr Isaac Yang.

She learned about their approach to cases like hers. 

Last September, the 27-year-old flew to Los Angeles to be examined by Dr Gopen.

'Dr Gopen diagnosed me within 15 minutes and said, "Absolutely we can do surgery". I was crying because I had been through so much,' Miss Pyne said.

'Patients are relieved to learn that this situation has become routine to us,' said Dr Yang, a UCLA neurosurgeon who works with Dr Gopen on each SSCD procedure.

'Because we see a lot of these cases, we not only believe them when they say they can hear their eyeballs or neck muscles move, but we can help them.'

After five years of operating on more than 60 SSCD patients together, Dr Gopen and Dr Yang have developed a minimally invasive surgical technique that patches the hole in the inner ear, restoring normal balance and hearing.

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