Posted on 04/14/2011 7:23:25 AM PDT by Red Badger
A grandfather who was tormented by the 'screaming in his ears' as a result of chronic tinnitus shot himself in the head, an inquest heard.
Roy Sullivan's medical condition, where sufferers hear a constant ringing in their ear, had been getting progressively worse.
The quiet 74-year-old was found with gunshot wounds by his wife at their home in Essex when she returned from her grandson's 14th birthday visit in January.
Eileen Sullivan told the hearing: 'Roy was such a peaceful, quiet man. He just couldn't stand the noise. He liked to be quiet. If I had the radio on and I went out, he would turn it off because he just wanted to be quiet.'
On the morning of his death, Mr Sullivan had looked pale and had complained to his wife that his tinnitus had been really bad during the night.
'When he woke up he just held his head and said it was screaming in his ears.'
He said he didn't want to go out so she travelled without him to Suffolk with the 14th birthday cake she had baked.
When she returned home Mrs Sullivan found a note from her husband in the kitchen.
She went to the chicken shed at the bottom of the garden and found him with head injuries and a gun by his side, Chelmsford Coroner's Court heard.
Essex coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray was told that Mr Sullivan had a history of hypertension and tinnitus which had become worse prior to his death.
A postmortem stated that Mr Sullivan died from severe head injuries due to gunshot wounds.
The coroner recorded a verdict that he killed himself while the balance of his mind was disturbed.
She said he was clearly suffering distress due to the tinnitus and that it was 'clearly getting him down.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Those of us that have had it for a looong time have learned to deal with it in various ways. But this is not unheard of. Reminds me of the old Star Trek episode where a guy flew his spaceship into a star to relieve the pain inflicted from a life form that attached itself to the nervous system.............
My way of dealing with it is just ignoring it and not fixating on it. I have conditioned myself not to think about it.
Works good until I see an article about it and now I hear it, LOL (like sleigh bells).
Will now try not to think about it and move on. It'll fall into the faint unnoticed background eventually.
Talk radio helps...............and chardonnay..............
Smirnoff.............. :^)
That’ll do............
Poor man. :-(
RIP.
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