Apple Airpod remains usable after man swallowed and excreted it

Taiwan – Would you use something that has been excreted from your body? For many, the answer might be a firm “No!” However, this was not the case for a Taiwanese man who accidentally swallowed an Apple Airpod while sleeping, which turned out to be usable after being discharged from his body.

According to Yahoo news, Ben Hsu, a navy recruiter from Kaohsiung, fell asleep with a pair of wireless earbuds in his ears. However, he was bewildered when he awoke to find a earbud missing. This prompted him to use his iPhone tracking feature, which helps the user to locate a missing device.

While he learned that the missing Airpod was still in his room, he could not pinpoint where the sound was coming from.

He said, “I checked under my blanket and looked around but couldn’t find it.”

“Then, I realized the sound was coming from my stomach.”

Hsu’s suspicion was confirmed through an X-ray when he went to the Kaohsiung Municipal United Hospital, where the doctors told him that the Airpod, which is about 41 millimeters in size, was moving through his digestive system. At that point in time, he was not experiencing any pain at all.

To avoid surgery, Hsu’s doctors gave him a laxative and told him to check his faeces for any sign of the Airpod.

The next day, Hsu passed the earphone in a railway station toilet.

After washing it and letting it dry, he was stunned to discover that it still worked, and that its battery was at 41 percent.

One doctor who worked at the hospital said that the navy recruiter was lucky to have survived the ordeal.

“Because of the plastic shell around the AirPod, the risk of it causing him harm in a similar way to swallowing a regular lithium-ion battery is much lower,” Dr. Chen Chieh-fan of the hospital emergency room said.