WASHINGTON: A man was nearly electrocuted when he slept with his iPhone in his bed as it charged overnight.
The incident happened on March 22 when Wiley Day from Huntsville, Alabama woke up and rolled over, when a dog-tag necklace he was wearing caught the exposed prongs of the charger. The metal chain became a conductor for the electricity and it traveled straight to his neck.
The 32-year-old does not have enough adjectives to describe the jolt he felt saying it was “the eeriest, darkest, most demonic thing you could ever experience.”
Day said he was thrown from his bed to the ground and in a matter of moments, he stopped feeling anything. “Your body is numb at that point,” he said.
“I guess people would think it would be burning, but in my case I felt a whole lot of pressure around my neck.”
Day remembers his eyesight starting to fade and everything was rendered in black and gray. He also became aware of his heartbeat which thundered in his ear. He managed to quickly pull off his necklace.
He shouted for his relatives who slept on the other side of the home. His adult niece came running into the room and alerted him to smoke coming out of the extension cord.
Day suffered severe injures as strips of skin and flesh were missing where the metal chain had scorched his neck. The necklace also burned into parts of his hands where he had gripped the chain to pull it off.
“I just believe that God spared my life, and that’s what happened,” he said. Day was immediately admitted to hospital and had suffered second- and third-degree burns to his hands and neck.
A physician Benjamin Fail told a local radio station that 100 volts of electricity can kill a person, while he estimates that Day was hit with 110 volts. “He is lucky to be alive,” Fail told the station. “Electrocution kills.”
Day was released after three days in the hospital. It took several days before he returned sleeping in the same room where the accident happened.
He said that he wanted to share his story to let others know of the possible dangers of charging electronics in bed.
Day said he works as behavior specialist at a middle school where he has seen students who cannot part from their phones. Many people including adults have reached to him saying they have the same habit.
Day has since started charging his iPhone in the kitchen — far away from his bedroom.
Speaking of his experience he said it’s not worth charging electronics in bed. “I wouldn’t wish what happened to me on my worst enemy.”
