Ipod Bacomes A Savior : Saving A Girl But The Man Seems Injured

To people in many cultures, music is inextricably intertwined into their way of life. With millions of Apple’s popular iPod music players sold worldwide every year, often you would see many joggers plugging in to their fashionable gadget while exercising. There is no doubt that listening to songs in high decibels on a frequent basis will result in a permanent or partial ear loss. However, iPods can save lives too.

Recently, a teenage girl Sophie Frost from the United Kingdom survived from a terrifying ordeal when a thunderstorm of 300,000 volts strikes her. All thanks to the wires in her four-day-old iPod Nano, the high voltage has been diverted away from her vital organs. She and her boyfriend, Mason took shelter in a tree while walking home. Both of them have passed out when the lightning strikes but Mason has managed to gain consciousness and called for help. Sophie suffered slight burns to her body and legs, some temporary damage to her eyes and a perforated eardrum with three days of treatment in a hospital.

She was thankful that her grandmother had given her an iPod as a gift four days ago before the incident. Her family members and friends were all surprised that even the sleek gadget has the ability to divert the high voltage and thus saving lives.

Although there were no official reports stating that an iPod has claimed any lives for the past few years, but it has seriously injured several joggers during thunderstorms. Two years ago, doctors claimed that iPods in thunderstorms are deemed bad for users when a 37-year-old man suffered second-degree burns and was hospitalised. For some reasons, he had been jogging in a thunderstorm, listening to his iPod, when an adjacent tree was struck by lightning. Witnesses reported that he was thrown approximately 8 ft (2.4 m) from the tree.

Unfortunately, he was seriously injured with second-degree burns on his chest and left leg. In addition, two linear burns extended along his anterior chest and neck to the sides of his face, terminating in substantial burns in the external auditory meatus bilaterally, corresponding to the positions of his earphones at the time of the lightning strike. Both of his tympanic membranes were ruptured, and he had a severe conductive hearing deficit. He also had a mandibular fracture.

These two incidents have sparked off controversy of whether Apple’s iPods in thunderstorms benefit us or put us in a state of danger







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