perforated eardrum

I just had this experience a couple of days ago; I was going down (too fast to notice I am told) when without prior sign or ache the eardrum of my right ear popped and burst. I stopped the dive and returned to the surface just to verify that blood was coming out my eardrum. As I am still a beginner in freediving and actually in schock that this has happened to me; I am still struggling to find out what went wrong and how could i have prevented it. I ve experienced many times when i cant equalise any more and i stop... but this happened with no warning sign to me...is there anything specific i should have checked after my eardrum (hopefully) heals in a couple of months? Thanks.

Bill McIntyre said:

After over 60 years if diving, I had my first perforation a couple of weeks ago. It bled about two days after my last dive and I had no pain. The doc said that I probably had some water and bacteria in the middle ear and it swelled up and popped from the inside out. He gave me antibiotics for one week and it has already healed up.

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thank you Bill for your insight - appreciate it.

Bill McIntyre said:

I guess I didn't really address your problem of having no warning. My wife has had pain before rupturing her eardrum, and I think most people do.

About 20 years ago I suffered a round window rupture in one ear and have been deaf in that ear ever since, and I don't recall having any warning. I was warned that I should quit diving so as not to risk a round window rupture in the other ear, and I did quit diving for about 5 years before resuming. I don't know of any precautions I can take other than being scrupulous about not forcing equalization.

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Thank you Bill, what troubles me about that dive is that i was equalizing (at least i thought i did) every second from the surface, no ear pressure, no pain and all of the sudden..: loud sound like a ballon bursted next to my ear at -12m and then i stopped. Thank you again for getting back with more to say.