A man from Huntsville, Alabama, is recovering from second- and third-degree burns after his iPhone charger shocked him with 110 volts of electricity while he was sleeping in bed.
Wiley Day told The Washington Post that, like many others, he used to go to sleep every night with his iPhone in his bed and plugged into a nearby outlet to charge overnight. However, when he woke up on March 23, his metal dog-tag necklace got caught on the prongs of the charger, which had come loose from an extension cord.
“[The jolt was] the eeriest, darkest, most demonic thing you could ever experience,” he told the newspaper. “I don’t have enough adjectives to describe it.”
The electricity conducted from Day’s metal chain traveled to his neck and threw him out of bed. “Your body is numb at that point,” he recounted to the Post. “I guess people would think it would be burning, but in my case I felt a whole lot of pressure around my neck.”
Once his eyesight began to fade, Day shouted for help from his family members and he managed to pull his necklace off. When Day realized what had happened, he stood up and said, “Oh, my God, I think I just got electrocuted.”
The Post reported that Day’s shirt had a small hole burned into it and pieces of skin and flesh were missing from the area where the chain had shocked his neck. He was hospitalized for three days while he was treated for second- and third-degree burns to his neck and hands.
Benjamin Fail, a physician in Huntsville, estimated that Day was shocked with approximately 110 volts of electricity. “He is lucky to be alive,” Fail told WAAY-TV. “Electrocution kills.”
Day has since started charging his iPhone in his kitchen. “From my experience to others, it is not worth your life charging your electronics in bed,” he told the Post. “I mean, it’s not worth it. I wouldn’t wish what happened to me on my worst enemy.”
