Overview
- Carli Bellmer, a 27-year-old Boston podcaster, posted on TikTok Friday that she accidentally swallowed a left AirPod after mistaking it for an ibuprofen 800 tablet and the video quickly went viral.
- She said the earbud remained connected to her phone and played a voice memo while lodged in her stomach, a detail she used in follow-up posts to explain the experience.
- Bellmer reported that an X-ray she cited showed the device had passed through her digestive tract and that she did not retrieve the AirPod after it exited her body.
- Viewers reacted with a mix of concern and scepticism, with some social-media users accusing her of staging the episode and news outlets noting the X-ray as partial corroboration.
- Reports placed the case alongside earlier incidents from 2019, 2021 and January that show swallowed earbuds can either pass naturally or require endoscopic removal and that swallowed electronics pose risks such as battery damage, airway injury, or the need for emergency extraction.