New York Daily News – Home – Did pills deafen Rush?

New York Daily News – Home – Did pills deafen Rush?: “Limbaugh, who has advocated jailing junkies, shocked his 20 million listeners last week when he admitted on his radio show that he was hooked on painkillers. The raving right-winger, who also said he was going into rehab to kick his habit, was replaced yesterday by Sacramento-based Tom Sullivan.
Limbaugh’s admission came after a week of Clintonesque evasions amid damaging reports that he bought thousands of under-the-counter OxyContin, Lorcet and hydrocodone pills from his former maid, Wilma Cline. She and her ex-con husband are now the focus of a Florida criminal probe.
Asked whether those drugs could have caused Limbaugh’s deafness, Derebery said that ‘prescription drugs can attack hearing.’
‘We don’t know why the immune system goes haywire in some people and attacks their inner ear,’ she added. ‘We don’t know why some people, but apparently not most, who take large doses may lose their hearing.’
Limbaugh’s hearing was restored by an electronic device that was implanted in his ear. And while blood tests would have been done before the surgery, they would not have detected the presence of painkillers, experts said.”