WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES
Note to self: don’t ever sleep next to your dodgy phone charger while wearing a necklace. A 19-year-old woman from Michigan suffered some pretty disturbing neck burns after her chain necklace came in contact with her “generic cell phone charger.”
According to a report in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, the woman was burnt while lying in bed with the charger plugged into the wall and her iPhone sitting beneath her pillow. She reported feeling a “sudden burning sensation and severe pain around her neck,” and was quickly taken to the emergency room to be treated.
The report states that “several companies have invested the difference in quality and safety of generic versus Apple-branded chargers and found that the majority of generic chargers fail basic safety testing, making them a higher risk for electrical injury.”
Lead author Dr. Carissa Bunke said in a statement, “Teens and adolescents are particularly at risk of injury due to their frequent mobile device use. They should be advised to not sleep with their phones or mobile devices charging in bed and avoid leaving the charger plugged in when it is not connected to a phone.
Sadly, this isn’t the first time this has happened. In 2016, the NYPD shared images of pillowcases burned to a crisp after users slept with their cell phones underneath and in 2017, a 19-month-old baby in Kentucky was badly burnt when she put a phone charger in her mouth
It might make snoozing your alarm easier, but if it means singing your skin off, I’d rather leave the charger plugged in on the other side of the room.