A 22-Year-Old’s Ears Never Popped After a Flight to Chicago, But Then Came the Bleeding, the Weight Loss, and a Rare Diagnosis
"It was horrifying."
Aida Burkins’ ears never popped after a flight, and months later, she had a cancer diagnosis. According to Newsweek, the 22-year-old mother of two, from Hemet, California, was flying to Chicago when she first noticed the problem. Her condition worsened quickly after she got home. “It all started with my ear not popping after my flight to Chicago,” she said. “I started bleeding into my throat, which would only come out of my nose if I was bent at the hip at about 90 degrees.”
Burkins said her hearing “got worse and worse” in the weeks that followed, along with fatigue and unexplained weight loss. “Everything sounded so muffled, and I had a ringing that wouldn’t go away,” she said. Multiple doctors initially attributed her symptoms to altitude sickness.
One doctor eventually found a mass blocking her Eustachian tube, the narrow channel connecting the middle ear to the back of the nose and throat. An ENT specialist identified the mass and flagged it as potentially cancerous, though unlikely given her age, and found her adenoids were enlarged and needed removal.
The Biopsy Results Kept Raising More Questions
A biopsy came back inconclusive, and a second one followed after the left side of her throat began swelling. “The doctor told me he had never seen anything quite like what I had going on,” she said. “He couldn’t be sure it was cancer, but he said it was very suspicious.” CT scans later revealed additional growths, including in the cervical lymph nodes near the base of her skull, leading to surgery that confirmed nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a rare cancer of the upper throat.
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma affects fewer than one person per 100,000 annually in the US, according to the source. Independent data from the American Cancer Society confirms the disease is far more common in parts of Asia and North Africa than in Western countries. It’s strongly linked to Epstein-Barr virus infection, though the ACS notes on its own site that most people who contract EBV never develop this cancer; genetic factors and certain environmental exposures also play a role.
Early symptoms, like the ones Burkins described, often overlap with far more common conditions, which is part of why the disease is frequently misdiagnosed or caught late. The Cleveland Clinic lists one-sided hearing loss, tinnitus, a feeling of ear fullness, and persistent nosebleeds among its most common warning signs, alongside a painless neck lump that’s often the symptom that finally sends people to a doctor.
Burkins underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy as part of her cancer treatment following the diagnosis, and said the tumor has shrunk significantly since starting. “Everything is shrinking and responding to the treatments my doctors have been giving me, so they’re optimistic that I’ll be cancer-free,” she said.
She added that she chose to share her story publicly to remind people that “cancer doesn’t discriminate” and can affect people of all ages.
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