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On the set of the program “Big Heads” on RTL, Jean-Marie Bigard returned to his health problems. In particular, he detailed his problem of deafness, which affects him in one ear, for which he must wear a device.
“I am deaf in one ear, I have a device that sends me the sound I receive on the left in the right ear. So much so that, when someone calls me, I don’t know where the sound is coming from…“explains Jean-Marie Bigard, at the microphone of the program hosted by Laurent Ruquier on RTL. Then, continuing in a humorous tone, Jean-Marie Bigard adds: “I sleep on the ear that hears, like that, nobody [m’embête] overnight !”.
What are the types of deafness?
Jean-Marie Bigard does not explain what caused his unilateral deafness, which only affects his right ear.
There are different types of hearing loss, the most common being conductive and sensorineural hearing loss.
Conductive hearing loss is characterized by damage to the outer or middle ear. In this case, the average loss is rarely greater than 40 dB and the deafness is often operable and easily fitted. Transient deafness, caused by acute otitis or permanent deafness due to a blockage or ossicles are also part of this category.
The second category is sensorineural hearing loss. It is characterized by damage to the inner ear. These hearing impairments are more difficult to treat because they are not operable and can only be fitted with hearing aids. These hearing impairments are congenital, genetic or accidental.
Most are acquired and result from an attack on the hair cells of the inner ear by noise, aging, ototoxic drugs (toxic for the ear) or other diseases.
Other health concerns
If he has this handicap, it is not the only health problem from which the 68-year-old man suffers. Jean-Marie Bigard has already confessed to having struggled with an addiction to alcohol, but also to having diabetes, as he had confided to Télé-Loisirs in November 2022: “I’ve been handling this shit the way I can for 25 years. But I’m getting better and better. With diabetes, you are your own doctor, if you don’t care, you die. But now we have great tools! I haven’t scared myself so much with diabetes, I’m watching. But if I hadn’t become diabetic, I would have died, already !”.
Jean-Marie Bigard also suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and had a stroke a few years ago. But he remains optimistic despite everything and does not intend to put a brake on his activities, in particular as a columnist on various TV and radio sets.