ND’d 9mm glock 19 indoors - hearing damage

N

Nashhh

Private
Minuteman
Jan 27, 2021
2
0
Nashville, TN
#1
Hello everyone, I’m new to the forum.

2 weeks ago a friend dropped a mag but forgot to clear chamber and ND’d his glock 19 right next to me in a medium sized bedroom. Fortunately no one was hurt other than our hearing. The scary part is that I’ve spent the last 20 years of my career as an audio engineer and my hearing took a hit in my right ear.

I went to an Otologyst 2 days later, they did audiogram and they confirmed threshold shifts in my right ear. The doc did an intratympatic steroid injection and sent me home to hope for the best.

It’s 2 weeks later now and my hearing still hasn’t improved much, and I still have high pitched ringing.

Have any of you experienced this? Did anyone see more hearing improvement after 2 weeks?

I’m still holding on to hope that it might get better, but if it doesn’t I’m afraid my career might be over.

Any insights appreciated.
 
#2
Sorry, I can’t hear you over the ringing in my ears. The hell of it is that my tinnitus is not from gunfire, but from an injury that ruptured my ear drum and required an eardrum replacement surgery. I remember deer hunting as a kid and touching of rifle rounds in a deer blind. The ringing only lasted a minute or so. If it has been 2 weeks you may need to learn to embrace the ringing, though you may regain the majority of your hearing. If it sounds like you are hearing things through a tin can, that may go away with additional time.

Hearing loss is usually a physical injury to the cells that transmit the sound. They are fairly fragile and high pressure sounds (loud) can cause the little “hairs” that detect the sound (stereocilia) to break. Unfortunately, these cells don’t regenerate, and that ringing is from the cells being more or less constantly ON.
 
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#3
Hair cells, the auditory neurons in your cochlea, were hammered. Depending on the severity of the sound amplitude, you will likely recover most if not all of your hearing. Treatment with an intratympanic steroid is pretty much state of the art treatment. I'd follow up soon for another test and let your otologist decide about more steroids or oral steroids because there tends to be a window of time for treatment and recovery from an acute cochlear injury. In the future be more carful about who you hang with and wear the best hearing pro you can afford when you shoot.
 
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#4
Nashhh said:
Hello everyone, I’m new to the forum.

2 weeks ago a friend dropped a mag but forgot to clear chamber and ND’d his glock 19 right next to me in a medium sized bedroom. Fortunately no one was hurt other than our hearing. The scary part is that I’ve spent the last 20 years of my career as an audio engineer and my hearing took a hit in my right ear.

I went to an Otologyst 2 days later, they did audiogram and they confirmed threshold shifts in my right ear. The doc did an intratympatic steroid injection and sent me home to hope for the best.

It’s 2 weeks later now and my hearing still hasn’t improved much, and I still have high pitched ringing.

Have any of you experienced this? Did anyone see more hearing improvement after 2 weeks?

I’m still holding on to hope that it might get better, but if it doesn’t I’m afraid my career might be over.

Any insights appreciated.
Click to expand...

Your hearing has been permanently damaged. Just get used to tinnitus.

And choose smarter friends.
 
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#7
It takes MONTHS - like 6 of them - to recover from that kind of auditory harm (as far as you will recover).

I had constant ringing in my ears for 6-months because of when I had to use my pistol to save my life in an enclosed space.

If I had a suppressor (i.e., if it wasn't a god damn nightmare and financial drain to get one), the damage wouldn't have been severe.

I did lose some hearing in my right ear that I'll never recover. And occasionally ringing returns if my blood pressure is up. But at least I'm alive.
 
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#8
Youll be fine....honestly.

ive been indoors for more than a few rounds fired without hearing protection.....shit is uncomfortable for a few weeks....it feels like your ears are clogged....but itll clear up eventually.....i think last time it took me a month or two to get back to "normal".

i have tinnitus .....but in all the hearing checks ive had, i actually havent suffered any hearing loss.....
 
#9
How far away was the gun from your ear? Closer than if you were shooting it? If not, I wouldn't be too worried about long term career issues. Permanent damage? Technically, probably so, but from a single discharge like that you won't have anything that will affect your career unless the gun was a lot closer than usual. My brother is a recording engineer in Nash Vegas too, and we grew up shooting all kinds of stuff on the farm, usually without ear pro (hardly anyone wore it back then). It is a cumulative injury. He's about to turn 50 and thinks he's beginning to feel the effects of it now, but it's minor (yet it will be progressive). But, at 50 some of that is going to happen regardless. As for me, I shot a lot more than he did, flew airplanes several times a week for the past nearly 30 years, and spent my life in front of cranked Marshalls and Boogies (as did he, we're both guitarists). My damage is presumably a lot more advanced than his, and I have some tinnitus. I had my hearing tested last year and it was normal up to 4K, but then there is a sharp drop above that. I don't think he's had his tested yet. If I mix a recording of mine at home I have to be careful I don't get it too bright, or hissy, but you know where those freqs live and can keep an eye out on your settings if you think they're unusually high.

Bottom line, you may have some noticeable effects for a couple weeks/months, but ultimately I think your career is safe from a single discharge unless it was closer than a few feet.
 
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#11
Damage/duration can depend on your age too. Though I was 20 when I lost mine and have now had severe tinnitus for 27 years! Thanks USMC. Anyway, for a situation like yours, as I said, age will play a role. For example, my mother suffered permanent damage to her otherwise good hearing about a year ago when she walked up to a firing line with my dad without ear pro. A guy on the line fired a pistol at that moment and she can't hear shit now. Had to get hearing aids. She's 70 though. I'd reckon if you're young, you may be ok as others have said after a month or a few. Good luck. Tinnitus sucks!
 
#12
THEIS said:
Hi,

Once your hearing is damaged it is pretty much damaged for life.
No shots, creams, pills, etc are going to restore it to the level/quality you are desiring.

Sincerely,
Theis
Click to expand...

Yep

I didn't get into guns until my late 30s and have shot without hearing protection only a handful of times.

The majority of my damage came from working in noisy ass machinery spaces on ships with no hearing protection. The higher the frequency of the noise the worse the damage, or so I've been told. And steam turbines do have some really nasty high freq noise to them.
 
#13
Nashhh said:
Hello everyone, I’m new to the forum.

2 weeks ago a friend dropped a mag but forgot to clear chamber and ND’d his glock 19 right next to me in a medium sized bedroom. Fortunately no one was hurt other than our hearing. The scary part is that I’ve spent the last 20 years of my career as an audio engineer and my hearing took a hit in my right ear.

I went to an Otologyst 2 days later, they did audiogram and they confirmed threshold shifts in my right ear. The doc did an intratympatic steroid injection and sent me home to hope for the best.

It’s 2 weeks later now and my hearing still hasn’t improved much, and I still have high pitched ringing.

Have any of you experienced this? Did anyone see more hearing improvement after 2 weeks?

I’m still holding on to hope that it might get better, but if it doesn’t I’m afraid my career might be over.

Any insights appreciated.
Click to expand...

It's normal to feel a bit depressed about it at first but you will learn to live with the ringing if it stays and the hearing loss. I was in the music business and growing up shooting guns without hear pro I was bound to have it. My Kids won't ever shoot without hearing Pro and the nights of me being out front or side stage with music blasting didn't help but 31 with tinnitus and hearing loss is a bitch especially being self inflicted.

Keep your head up, stay positive and most of the your colleagues can't hear or mix a good song for shit anyway seeing you are also in nashville :) So the hearing loss may not be too bad!!
 
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#15
I've got tinnitus, had it for as long as I can remember. I also somehow have above normal hearing, at least according to my last pre-employment physical. You'll get used to it
 
#17
I really don't think one shot is gonna do much damage, unless it was right next to your ear. The scary part is: Dude put his finger on the trigger when he didn't intend to fire the weapon.
 
#19
Yeah... BTDT! I actually saw a guy shoot himself in the head "accidentally" when I was 14. It was a fucking mess and that was the loudest .25ACP I ever heard in my life. The one you don't expect always is.

The loudest sound I ever heard was actually a .357 686+ 6" firing Triton 158gr. magnums IIRC. Outside, with a barn wall behind me and open space circled with trees... My damn ears were still ringing a month later when I started basic. .357's are one of the loudest, the order of noise doesn't make much sense according to caliber. The blind guy from above was there too, FWIW... ND's can kill, or at least take your sight (which ultimately did kill him since he couldn't get out of his house fast enough when he set it on fire one morning).

SAW belts, 240 belts, BMG belts. No, actually the loudest may have been when I fired my DTA HTI without ANY ear pro, with brake and no suppressor. I was literally writhing in pain, thought the damn thing blew up. But it faded faster. I also got a black ring around my eye on that one, worse that fucking Frick and Frack combined that day... Go ahead, laugh it up. I did.

However, it was actually the over pressure from detonating a string of claymores simultaneously from like 20 yards or some shit that did me in. There was a berm between me and the mines but that was it, I felt it. Ears are still ringing twenty years later, like tea kettle ringing. The hairs got mowed down. Some drugs deadened it but they deadened everything else too. In part it gets better, in part it you get used to it.

The ringing didn't affect hearing though. They say my hearing is just fine, absolutely unbelievable, because in the infantry 20 years ago the unspoken "SOP" here was to "get used to it" ASAP, they give you earplugs so they aren't on the hook for hearing disabilities (but tinnitus is guaranteed 10%, no questions, go figure) but you can't wear 'em because you still gotta be able to communicate. Somehow hear words over 140dB gunshots, whatever. I don't know if it's like vision --my vision is 20/20 too, but it used to be 20/15 or whatever it is when it's better than that. They don't account for how much you lost, just whatever the cut off is today.

But yeah, I'd give it time. After a couple weeks it starts to fade a bit faster. Sounds like you took a good hit but it gets better. I'd doubt you really have any hearing damage, maybe the cilia that'll cause that ringing, it's permanent, but being sound sensitive like you are and concerned I think you probably went to the doc too early (or rather, need to go back later after you heal some). Even with the ringing, and mine is pretty bad, I haven't experienced silence in 20 years and never will again, I can still pick up sounds at that same frequency since the cadence is different.

In short, "I" think you'll be okay. But given your like of work or maybe being an audiophile like I suspect, it may behoove you to go back and see the doc in a month or so. All based purely on my experience here, your mileage my be different.
 
#21
Try being under a M2 barrel while your gunner lets a burst go without warning out of a M998.

If I wasn't wearing a helmet I would have gotten brain damage or at the least a concussion. Couldn't hear for almost a month.

One gun shot indoors is like going to the DR. for a stumped toe. Suck it up.
 
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#22
101stinfantry said:
I really don't think one shot is gonna do much damage, unless it was right next to your ear. The scary part is: Dude put his finger on the trigger when he didn't intend to fire the weapon.
Click to expand...

It was a glock. I bet it went like this: "it's a glock, you have to release the striker to take it down like this BOOM"
 
#23
At my old shooting range, guy next to me was doing load development for his braked .221 rem fireball. Fucked my ear up good even with double ear pro. The pain and ringing subsided after about a month. I wore peltor muffs for a week afterwards, it helped a lot, but I probably looked like a goofball during that time.
 
#24
Echoing what others are saying, you're more than likely going to be fine - definitely some tinnitus, but it's probably a stretch to worry about your career being over.

I've had tinnitus (apparently) most of my life to the point that I can't remember not hearing a constant "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" - I thought it was normal until I was around 10-12 years old when I saw it on a commercial or something and asked what it was.

As an aside, I'd re-evaluate the status of this person as your "friend".
 
#26
Nah, it's like this: Don't put your FUCKING finger on the trigger unless your ready for a discharge! To hell with your hearing, you might end up dead, the last and final safety is between your ears!
Besides guys a 9mm might be loud in an enclosed room, but the ole AT-4 is louder outside! I'm not really busting anyone's balls here, I've violated just about every rule you can violate, and I'm paying for it, no one's fault but my own.
 
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#29
Not a doctor, but as others have expressed, I doubt one incident, AND you getting state of the art treatment is going to end badly.

That said, I have some hearing loss from years of shooting (even wearing ear pro). I now double up with foam plugs and Sordins now to preserve everything I have less... Hearing and vision are typically things you don't get back!
 
#30
Sorry all I can picture is this

1611895400790.gif
 
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#31
Graywolf.260 said:
Hair cells, the auditory neurons in your cochlea, were hammered. Depending on the severity of the sound amplitude, you will likely recover most if not all of your hearing. Treatment with an intratympanic steroid is pretty much state of the art treatment. I'd follow up soon for another test and let your otologist decide about more steroids or oral steroids because there tends to be a window of time for treatment and recovery from an acute cochlear injury. In the future be more carful about who you hang with and wear the best hearing pro you can afford when you shoot.
Click to expand...
6-8 week window. I got back about 15/30db with the steroid treatment. Still have mild tinnitus.
 
#32
I have had a few instances of booms that were a little (or a lot) too loud. None were ever related to ND's or anything like that.

My advice is to stay away from loud music, earbuds, head phones or really anything at all that has increased volumes of noise, especially things concentrated in your ears (IE headphones, telephones, or whatever).

Odds are you have some permanent damage but basically trying to have a time frame of relative quiet (like a week or two) will give your ears the opportunity to self correct (if that's even possible). Going around doing things like you always do them in the way of noise needs to change, at least for a week or two.

The opportunity to heal is important. It might not be back to 100% normal, but it will be substantially better than if you play your music on 11 while wearing ear buds, especially during this critical time frame. You can even wear foamies (foam ear plugs) while going around your day to day life (again the 1-2 week window) is critical. 8-10 hours a day with foam ear plus might be a little much but it does help.

No radio in your car. No loud noises on TV, no movies, headphones....nothing but as much quiet as you can feasibly handle is the best medicine now, at least for a short time frame.
 
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#34
Can’t help but chime in- I personally know TWO people that have NDed a Glock and both shot themselves. One took it in the palm (he was preparing to pull the two switches down) and the other...well he did it in bed-shot himself in the leg, his wife’s leg and the dog. Three hits with one round and thank God everyone survived.

I believe a common error is clearing the round BEFORE dropping the mag. Mental dyslexia so to speak.
 
#37
Either my tinnitus is sporadic or I have just learned to tune it out. There are times I have to go check my smoke detectors!
I have pretty bad hearing loss and wear hearing aids. I have to remember the "aids" part because there is nothing that will restore the hearing God provides.
Mine is, partly, caused by RO'ing thousands of competitors during my USPSA heydays. The bulk (I believe) is caused by my Telco career. I was subjected to lots of extreme noise working in urban environs outside and even more during the years I worked in centers dealing with headsets blasting me with high decibel tones from testing equipment on high speed data lines.
Being around firearms for well over 50 years has taught me a few things. One (a big one) is that, no matter how many times a firearm is "cleared" I will always request to clear it myself before anyone decides it safe to point or pull the trigger.
 
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#38
Nashhh said:
Hello everyone, I’m new to the forum.

2 weeks ago a friend dropped a mag but forgot to clear chamber and ND’d his glock 19 right next to me in a medium sized bedroom. Fortunately no one was hurt other than our hearing. The scary part is that I’ve spent the last 20 years of my career as an audio engineer and my hearing took a hit in my right ear.

I went to an Otologyst 2 days later, they did audiogram and they confirmed threshold shifts in my right ear. The doc did an intratympatic steroid injection and sent me home to hope for the best.

It’s 2 weeks later now and my hearing still hasn’t improved much, and I still have high pitched ringing.

Have any of you experienced this? Did anyone see more hearing improvement after 2 weeks?

I’m still holding on to hope that it might get better, but if it doesn’t I’m afraid my career might be over.

Any insights appreciated.
Click to expand...
Basically had this same thing happen to me but with a 9mm 92fs. Friend fired it next to my ear, thought I was dead lol.
 
#40
The old Beretta Tomcat was really problematic for ADs because you could drop the magazine, rack the slide as many bloody times as you wanted and nope the bullet was still in the chamber as there was no extractor, just blowback, you had to pop the switch to get the barrel to flip up and pull the round out manually.

Otherwise known as a "mattress killer".
 
#44
Probably 5 or years ago, I got in a wrestling match with a friend while drunk and he must have clapped me in my ear, didn't notice at the time, but the next day I had one ear ringing VERY loudly. So loud I couldn't think of anything else except how am I going to go through life like this. I did some reading online to figure out what was going on and I read that a lot of people who have ringing that bad for life, don't end up living much longer. I can see why, because my only thoughts were to completely blow out my ear drum or to blow out my skull. Luckily it went away later the next day. Moral of the story... protect your ears
 
#45
redhooker said:
Can’t help but chime in- I personally know TWO people that have NDed a Glock and both shot themselves. One took it in the palm (he was preparing to pull the two switches down) and the other...well he did it in bed-shot himself in the leg, his wife’s leg and the dog. Three hits with one round and thank God everyone survived.

I believe a common error is clearing the round BEFORE dropping the mag. Mental dyslexia so to speak.
Click to expand...
1611954393984.png
1611954413009.png

1611954437164.png
 
#46
Sample size of 1, but I shot two rounds of 44 mag out of my Redhawk at a buck in 2019 unprotected and had muffled hearing and tinnitus from it. The muffled hearing improved after two months, and the tinnitus has gotten better over the last year. I'll never do that again unless it is a life or death situation. Wish I would have know about the steroids, I would have tried it.
 
#47
I was deer hunting 7 yrs ago and took my ear protection off. A big deer came out about 400 yds in a cut lane. Had to hurry my shot and forgot my ears were not on. I was in wooden shoot house shooting 338 lapua. Ears are still ringing today! It sucks!
 
#48
While I am not proud and do not recommend it to anyone. I have shot a lot in the past without hearing protection. If I remember correctly, there was a day when I did 32 rounds of 9mm without HP, a few of those were from within my truck. I will probably never do this again as it is not pleasant at all. But my ringing did go away eventually lol.
 
#50
You may have a chance at recovery, but it'll generally take many months.

The fact that it was a single pistol round helps your chances.

Did you punch your friend in the dick after said ND? Thats the real question.

Either way, don't let women telling you that you have hearing loss mean anything to you in the future if this does/doesn't get better. They all tend to do the exact same shit where they mumble/talk to you, while walking away from you down a hallway or into a different room. Then magically are upset that you're 'ignoring them'.
 
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