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Man Issues A Warning After Swallowing AirPod In His Sleep

Man Issues A Warning After Swallowing AirPod In His Sleep

When Brad Gauthier tried to drink, he felt his oesophagus fill with water and had to lean over for it to drain out

Rebecca Shepherd

Rebecca Shepherd

A dad has issued a warning after he swallowed one of his AirPods in his sleep, which resulted in a visit to the medical centre to get the troublesome piece of tech removed.

Brad Gauthier from Worcester in the US state of Massachusetts, took to Facebook after realising what had happened, writing: "Be careful listening to wireless headphones when you fall asleep, you never know where they'll end up."

In your oesophagus, apparently...
NBC

Mr Gauthier - father to a six-month-old baby - went to bed on Monday evening and listened to some music to help him drift off. He woke up the following morning not knowing anything was wrong.

He went outside to start shovelling snow in his neighbourhood and told NBC: "I went to go take a drink of water, and the water just filled up my oesophagus, I literally had to lean over and let it drain out."

The offending AirPod.
NBC

Mr Gauthier had already realised he was an AirPod down and attempted to use the 'Find My AirPod' feature on his phone but the battery on the earphones had died - probably a good thing, as he fears he might have been even more concerned were that not the case.

He went on: "That's one of my routine things - can't find the AirPod, hit the 'Find My AirPod' feature on my phone. I think I probably would have had a heart attack if I had hit that button and the sound came out of my throat."

The family then rushed to a RediMed, suspecting they knew where the earphone had disappeared to. Mr Gauthier continued: "[The doctor] said, 'Alright, we'll have an X-ray,' you know, as a precautionary measure, and lo and behold, she came back in the room, and the look on her face was priceless."

NBC reported that Gauthier immediately underwent an endoscopy in Auburn, and doctors successfully and safely retrieved his long-lost ear bud.

NBC

Surprisingly, after being lodged in the oesophagus and doused in water, the AirPod still works - despite being a little glitchy on the microphone front.

But Mr Gauthier hopes to rectify the problem, concluding: "I think I'm going to either have to look up a YouTube video on how to take it apart and fix it myself, or replace the mic, or just pick up a new one."

Treat yourself to some new headphones... ones with wires, maybe? Just a suggestion.

Featured Image Credit: NBC

Topics: News, Funny, Community, Weird