Massachusetts Man Swallowed AirPod While Sleeping

A Worcester man underwent an emergency endoscopy after accidentally swallowing an Apple Air Pod wireless headphone earpiece after he fell asleep.

Yes, seriously.

Brad Gauthier, who initially didn't even realize it happened, detailed his bizarre experience in a Facebook post.

This past Monday night he went to bed and fell asleep listening to music through his AirPods, which he said he typically does nightly. Tuesday morning he woke up and didn't initially notice anything strange. He couldn't immediately find one of the earpieces, but he just assumed it had fallen out while sleeping and that he'd look for it later.

After shoveling snow for about an hour Gauthier did notice his throat was a little dry but chaulked to up to the dry winter air. He went inside to take a sip of water but the liquid wouldn't go down his throat and the only way to get the water out of his esophagus was to lean over to drain it from his throat.

Gauthier's young son Owen was actually the one who suggested that his father had swallowed the earbud, which is exactly what an X-ray at a local emergency clinic revealed. The small plastic device was lodged in his lower esophagus and doctors had to perform an emergency endoscopy to remove it.

Gauthier said he never experienced more than minor discomfort. He told NBC Boston 10 that he wanted to share his experience to caution others not to sleep with their headphones.

Lots of people are afraid of swallowing spiders, but have you ever worried about swallowing your earbuds?

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