A teenager started hearing a strange pulsing noise, but her mild symptoms were signs of an alarming condition
CBSN
When Lizzie Clark was 13, she started experiencing a strange ringing in her left ear. At first, she thought the tinnitus-like sound was a side effect from a cold. But the cold left, and the sound lingered, pulsing in time with her heartbeat.
For months, the "strange pulsing noise" was constant, Clark told CBS News. Her parents took her to see her primary care physician, then an ear, nose and throat doctor, but it wasn't until she underwent a CT scan that doctors finally found the cause. The eighth-grader was racing in a track meet when doctors called her parents and said they had seen a growth behind her eardrum.
"I was terrified. I was 13. I was like, 'What growth? What does that mean?'" Clark recalled. "There were a lot of questions buzzing around."
