Woman swallows Apple AirPod after mistaking it for a painkiller

The 27-year-old went to swallow what she thought was a painkiller tablet. By the time she realised what she had done, it was too late.

A Boston-based TikTok user has shared her experience of accidentally swallowing an Apple AirPod, after mistaking it for an ibuprofen tablet.

The 27-year-old, who uses the handle @iamcarliiib, was visibly upset and distressed in her video post.

“I was crawling into bed, I had an Ibuprofen 800 in my right hand and I had my left AirPod in my left hand,” she said.

“I like threw something back, took my water bottle and took a sip and then realised it wasn’t the Ibuprofren.

“I tried puking it up and it won’t come out. I’m losing my mind.”

Despite attempts to regurgitate the AirPod, she wasn’t successful. Picture: TikTok.

Carli was visibly upset in her TikTok video. Picture: TikTok.

Luckily, in an update video Carli shared that the AirPod had passed through her system, with an X-ray scan confirming no damage had been done to her insides.

“I had an X-ray done a few hours ago and it revealed that the AirPod had passed,” she said. “I had a feeling that it had but I just wanted to make sure.”

She also confirmed she did not make attempts to retrieve the AirPod.

The wireless listening devices retail for $219 for a pair. Picture: AFP PHOTO / Josh Edelson.

In another TikTok video, Carli shared a voice recording she made using audio picked up from her missing AirPod.

She unknowingly did this not realising the left AirPod was still connected to her phone while making a call to a friend. During this time, her right ear bud was in the charging case and thus wasn’t connected.

The message she played contained a bit of gurgling at the beginning before her muffled voice could be heard in the recording.

A faint gurgling sound could be heard in the recording made by the swallowed AirPod. Picture: TikTok.

The video has had over 13,000 likes. Picture: TikTok.

Carli’s experience is far from the first time such an incident has happened.

In 2019, Taiwanese man Ben Hsu said he swallowed an AirPod while sleeping, claiming they were still functional after passing through his digestive system.

Using Apple’s Find My Phone tracking feature which remotely turns on a device and instructs it to play a beeping sound, Mr Hsu realised the tone was coming from his stomach.

“I checked under my blanket and looked around but couldn’t find it – then I realised the sound was coming from my stomach,” he told the Daily Mail.

After being prescribed laxatives by doctors, he went on to retrieve the audio device from his stool, restoring it to functional status.

“The battery was still at 41 per cent! It was incredible,” he said.

And if that’s not a product endorsement, then we don’t know what is.