IT WAS New Year's Eve and Tania Shirt was drying her hair before heading out to join the celebrations when her left ear fell off.
She had undergone routine surgery in November 2000 to pin both ears back but within days realised there was a problem. When the bandages were taken off, the tissue on her left ear had died and gone black and the ear began to work loose — until it finally came away.
She said: "I was at home on my own when it happened and didn't know if the doctors could do anything for me. I thought it would be like that for the rest of my life."
She was eventually put in touch with leading plastic surgeon David Gault, an international expert in ear reconstruction at Great Ormond Street and Mount Vernon Hospitals in London, who has carried out a series of operations using cartilage from one of her ribs to create a new ear.
The reconstruction is now almost complete and she will undergo a final operation later this year.
As many as five per cent of patients who have their ears pinned using the standard approach suffer complications which can go on to cause major deformities.
Mr Gault is instead promoting a different technique using special stitches which he says is more precise and carries fewer risks.
He has also devised splints which can correct prominent ears when babies are in their first few months, saving them from future surgery.
Ms Shirt, 34, a divorced mother-of-two from Barnsley who has remained remarkably upbeat about the experience, said she had always been aware of her ears. She wore her hair long and never tied it back, avoiding sports like swimming at school for fear of embarrassment.
"If my hair got wet I used to burst into floods of tears regardless of whether someone saw me — that's just the way it was," she said.
She inherited the problem from her mother, who had an operation to pin them back and she decided to follow suit.
Surgery, which should have been routine, was performed on the NHS in a private hospital but it is believed the dressings were applied too tightly on her left ear. After taking legal action she was awarded compensation and was referred to Mr Gault, who in January last year began a series of operations to create a new ear.
A balloon was inserted beneath the skin to gradually expand the area around her ear and in the scalp to create a pocket of skin.
Ear cartilage — which accounts for most of the ear apart from the area of fat where earrings are traditionally worn — is unique.
Instead Mr Gault used cartilage from her ribs to carve out an ear-like structure that he designed to mimic her right ear.
This structure has been inserted in the skin pocket and is now flat against the side of her head beneath the skin to enable the blood supply in the cartilage to establish itself. Because it is designed from her own tissue, the body cannot reject it.
She will soon have a further operation to free the back of the ear and skin will be grafted on.
Mr Gault said the procedure involved about eight hours of surgery..
"It's routine for us because it's what we specialise in but in plastic surgery there is nothing else more complicated than making an ear," he said.
Ms Shirt, a part-time care home assistant, said it had been traumatic but the treatment she had received had been remarkable.
"Obviously I haven't enjoyed losing my ear or the pain I've suffered but the experience has been quite fascinating and very educational," she said.
mike.waites@ypn.co.uk

Birth of first child led surgeon
to develop splint technique

AS many as five per cent of people have ears that stick out more than 40 degrees from the side of the head.
But even less extreme protrusions often cause crippling embarrassment and in a few cases the problem affects a sufferer's entire way of life – from their hairstyle to their job and social life.
About two-thirds of cases are evident at birth but most are not corrected until the age of five at the earliest since the cartilage framework of the ear is too soft and floppy for surgery.
After his first child was born with a deformed ear, plastic surgeon David Gault devised a procedure using special splints which corrects the problem of bat ears while babies are in their first few months.
He said many parents of newborn children were advised to wait or that the problem would correct itself but in many cases this was not the case – leaving youngsters to suffer years of teasing.
"The good news is that neonatal moulding can help in most cases by avoiding the need for surgery and solving the problem before the child attends nursery or school."
The splints are designed and made specifically for each patient and work in the same way as a brace reshapes teeth. The pressure of the splint on the ear cartilage resets its tendency to make the ears stick out while maintaining the proper contours of the rest of the ear.
The procedure is carried out in babies in their first six months when the ear is extremely soft and easy to mould and can be successful within just a fortnight.
Traditional surgery involves making a series of incisions into the ear cartilage to weaken its ability to hold the ear out from the side of the head but it remains imprecise and the results are not known until bandages are removed. Bleeding often continues and the skin can become infected or put under so much pressure that the skin dies.
The NHS's bill for compensation is about £10,000 per case and can be as much as £30,000 for ears which have been lost altogether.
Mr Gault has developed a technique using strong permanent stitches
which are inserted to prevent the ear cartilage sticking out. That is
done under local anaesthetic and is extremely precise.
For more information on ear splints log on to www.earbuddies.co.uk