A man who accidentally swallowed his AirPod found that it still worked after passing through his digestive system: 'The battery was still at 41%'

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

AirPods are the latest electronic to be swallowed - and still work afterward.

• A man in Taiwan found that his AirPod still worked after being swallowed and passing through his digestive system, according to The Daily Mail.
• Ben Hsu is said to have swallowed the earbud while he was sleeping.
• The AirPod did not harm Hsu because he was not directly exposed to its battery, the report says, citing an emergency room doctor.
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A man in Taiwan found that his AirPod was still functional after he had accidentally swallowed it, according to a report from the Daily Mail.

Ben Hsu reportedly fell asleep while wearing Apple's wireless earbuds and found that he was missing one headphone when he woke up. He then used Apple's tracking feature to find it, which prompts a loose AirPod that's connected and within range to play a sound, the Daily Mail reports. 

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Hsu heard the beeping sound, but did not initially know where it was coming from. "I checked under my blanket and looked around but couldn't find it - then I realized the sound was coming from my stomach," he said, according to the Daily Mail.

Read more: Your AirPods are probably disgusting - here's how to clean them

Medics at the Kaohsiung Municipal Hospital indeed confirmed that the AirPod was in his stomach and was in the process of passing through his digestive system, the report said. Hsu said he found the AirPod the next day after passing it naturally. The earbud was still intact and worked properly after he had cleaned it and let it dry.

"The battery was still at 41%," he said according to The Daily Mail. "It was incredible." He referred to his experience with Apple's AirPods as "magical," says the report.

A doctor who works in the hospital's emergency room said that swallowing the AirPod did not harm Hsu because he was not directly exposed to the device's battery.

It's not the first time electronic devices have been swallowed. In 2016, a man in Ireland swallowed an entire cell phone and had to undergo surgery to remove it from his stomach, Live Science reported. The incident was documented in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports, and the man is said to have recovered normally. A 13-year-old girl in South Korea also swallowed her Misfit Shine fitness tracker, which also still worked after doctors removed it, as Live Science also reported.