14 DAY TRIAL // A damaged iPhone cable killed a teenage girl from Vietnam after she rolled onto the device plugged in for charging while sleeping.
It’s believed 14-year-old Le Thi Xoan left the iPhone charging on her bed before falling asleep, with police investigators claiming they found tears in the rubber on the cable that suggested the internal wires were exposed.
While damaged smartphone charging cables are nothing new, it’s not clear at this point if the girl was using the original cable supplied by Apple in the box of the iPhone or a third-party version. Regardless of the model, Metro reports that the cable was already damaged and the teenager used duct tape to continue using it despite the physical damage.
Her parents found the girl unconscious and although she was rushed to the hospital, doctors couldn’t do anything to save her. The teenager was declared dead and hospital officials cited electrocution as the reason.
Damaged iPhone cables
Wear and tear on iPhone cables isn’t something unusual, but a damaged charger should by no means continue to be used because it can not only damage the device itself, but also lead to electrocution as it happened in the case reported today.
Apple doesn’t replace cables unless they have a manufacturing defect and given the price of a new one, it’s not a surprise that many customers choose to either fix them using duct tape or buy third-party versions that are typically sold by Chinese companies for very low prices, despite not being certified for the iPhone.
Right now, the most affordable Lightning to USB cable that Apple sells (without the charger itself though) costs $19 from the Apple Store, while a Chinese knockoff that provides no guarantee it’ll work and charge your device correctly can be yours for as low as $1 if you know where to look.
Apple hasn’t released a statement on this incident, and the investigators are still trying to determine if it was a genuine cable or a third-party one.