AppleInsider Staff
For the second time this week, a report from China links Apple's iPhone to an accidental electrocution, with the latest incident involving a 30-year-old man who has been comatose for over ten days.
The Beijing Evening News reported Thursday that Wu Jian Tong was "suddenly shocked" while plugging in an iPhone 4 connected to a supposedly "counterfeit" or third-party charger.
According to a translation of the report provided by ZDNet, Wu shouted "I'm getting shocked" as he connected his iPhone 4 to the allegedly counterfeit adapter. Wu's sister, who relayed the story to reporters, said she tried to unplug the device.
"I then felt needle-like pains on my fingertips," she said. "The current was running from my finger, through to my arm and body, and to the foot."
When the emergency medical team arrived on scene, Wu was not breathing and required CPR. Rushed to a nearby hospital, Wu was stabilized by doctors, but he remains in a coma as a result of the severe deprivation of oxygen to his brain.
"It was no doubt an electric shock," Wu's doctor said.
Wu's reported incident pre-dates the death of a Chinese woman allegedly electrocuted in a similar manner. A follow-up to that story from CCTV claims the device in question was actually an iPhone 4, not an iPhone 5 as originally reported, and that a non-Apple adapter was also involved.
In response to the woman's death, which is still under investigation, Apple on Monday promised to "fully investigate and cooperate with authorities in [the] matter." The company has yet to issue a statement regarding Wu's alleged electrocution.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
86 Comments
I wonder if it was the same brand of adaptor as the woman had? There might be a whole batch that needs recalling.
Apple cannot stop the Cheap crap that goes to market that people buy that is not an authorized product of Apple. If you don't want to be shocked or electrocuted buy genuine Apple products that have been fully qualified by the URL listings to comply with safety. If you buy crap you get crap, it's that simple. There are a lot of other factors involved here to like what shape are the outlets in the home like? Condition of the wiring in the home and so on. Are they using some kind of transformer as well. If any of these are bad or in poor condition they to can lead to electrocution or shock. But an unauthorized wanna be product is the worse offender of all. Not made or approved by Apple. Not quality tested or built to the URL standards for electric safety.
It's interesting that this dominantly seem to happen in China.
This was covered by Watchdog on the BBC in UK some months ago. 9 year old girl was among those electrocuted by knocked-off 'apple' chargers. When examined by an expert they were found to basically be inherently lethal - essentially just connected the live current directly to the USB cable thus putting full mains voltage into the phone! Trading Standards confiscated the entire shipment from all shops selling them but warned that there could be any number of illegal copies just as dangerous. Needless to say, they were all Chinese fakes...
How is this Apple's fault when both people who got shocked used third party ac adapters? And when you get such strong shock, how the hell can the guy utter any words to his sister? I got shocked once on 110V for a few seconds, I could not speak or yell, my jaw closed tightly as the current travelled through my body. Same thing happens when someone is tased. This story sounds improbable and an anti-Apple propaganda from China. I don't deny people got hurt by these bad ac adapters, they should definitely be taken out of circulation.