Man accidentally swallows Apple Airpod, finds out it still works after leaving his system

A Taiwanese man who accidentally swallowed an Apple Airpod while sleeping was surprised to find out it still worked after it passed through his system, the Daily Mail reports.

Ben Hsu, a navy recruiter from Kaohsiung, fell asleep with a pair of wireless earbuds in his ears but woke up confused when he only found one. He used his iPhone tracking feature, which emits a beep to help its user locate a missing device, and learned that the missing Airpod was still in his room. Unfortunately, he still couldn't pinpoint where the sound was coming from.

"I checked under my blanket and looked around but couldn't find it," Hsu said. "Then I realized the sound was coming from my stomach."

Hsu went to a hospital, where medics confirmed his suspicion. They told him that the Airpod, which is about 41 millimeters in size, was in the process of passing through his digestive system, according to the British newspaper.

To avoid performing surgery, doctors gave Hsu a laxative and told him to check his waste for signs of the Airpod.

The next day, Hsu took a bathroom break at a railway station, dug through the toilet, and found the missing earbud. After washing it and letting it dry, he was amazed to discover that it still worked.

"The battery was still at 41 percent! It was incredible," Hsu said.

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