aUK woman hears eyeballs and insides of brain moving

A 47-year old woman from the UK can hear everything that's happening in her body as if listening through a stethoscope.

Julie Redfern could hear the quickening of her heartbeat, blood flowing through her veins even the sound of eyeballs moving. Redfern has been suffering from this torture for many years and does not know how to turn all the sounds off.

Redfern said she couldn't enjoy dinner with friends in restaurants because she has a hard time hearing them talk over the sound of her own mouth chewing her food. She also avoids eating crunchy food like apples, chips and crisps since they would only produce a deafening noise in her head.

When she worked as a receptionist, she would hear her eyeballs shake when the phone rings on her desk. Answering the phone became such an ordeal.

After suffering from this amplified hearing condition for seven years, she will finally put an end to her torture due to a new surgical procedure. Redfern first noticed her acute hearing after turning 40 as she sat playing in front of a computer.

When she heard weird squeaking sounds, she found out the noise came from her eyeballs. She thought the sounds came from the Tetris game as she followed the bricks with her eyes. Redfern clearly remembers the day she realised she had a strange condition. She says it was a "horrible sensation" when she heard her eyeballs moving and scratching.

When her husband came home later on, she also asked him if he heard his eyeballs move. Her husband just looked at her strangely and though she was going crazy. Redfern asked her friends but only she can hear her eyeballs moving. She consulted with doctors and only said it's because of her age, things do happen. Redfern knew something was not right with her hearing.

She could also hear things inside her head like swishing sounds in her brain. She eventually read about an article of a man having the same condition and showed the article to her doctor.

Redfern was referred to the Manchester Royal Infirmary. Scan tests revealed she is suffering from superior canal dehiscence syndrome (SCDS) which is a rare medical condition affecting the inner ear. The over sensitivity to sound is caused by the thinning of the bone inside the ear.

Dr. Gerald Brookes of the Harley Street ENT Clinic in London says some people are born with thin inner ear bones which may dissolve with age. The condition was first reported in 1998.

Redfern endured a 5-hour surgery for doctors to fill the holes of her thinning ear bone. She will be having her second operation in another ear soon and by then her condition will be cured.