The family of a 12-year-old boy is suing Apple after he allegedly has suffered permanent hearing loss from an ‘Amber Alert’ on wireless AirPod earbuds.
In the lawsuit filed Monday, parents Carlos Gordoa and Ariani Reyes and their son, identified as B.G., said the AirPods were defective because they play alerts at dangerous volumes, regardless of the volume set by the user.
They have accused the company of gross negligence and fraud.
According to the lawsuit, the injury happened in May 2020, while B.G., then 12, was watching Netflix on his iPhone while wearing an AirPod connected to the phone in his right ear.
An’ Amber Alert’ produced an “ear-shattering” sound level that ruptured B.G’s eardrum and damaged his inner ear, the family claim.
As a result, B.G. has permanent hearing loss and tinnitus, suffers from dizziness and needs to wear a hearing aid, the lawsuit said.
An Amber Alert (from America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response), notifies users about missing and abducted children.
The family claimed Apple was aware that its AirPods played extremely loud alerts from online complaints going back to 2019 from users who noted that AirPods did not adjust the alert volume to match that of the media they were playing.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tej Paranjpe of PMR Law, a lawyer for the family, said the boy's life had been “severely altered” because Apple did not provide a warning about the level of its AirPods.
This had led to his permanent loss of hearing, Paranjpe said.
Back in 2019, The Mirror reported on a student who fell asleep with his earbuds in and woke up deaf in one ear.
Doctors revealed the cautionary story to make those with a habit of falling asleep listening to music think twice.
They said if one of the ear buds had not fallen out while the second-year university student was sleeping, he might have lost his hearing in both ears.
The student gradually got his hearing back and narrowly avoided permanent hearing damage after receiving treatment at a hospital in Taiwan.
The man, who was not identified, was reportedly treated at Asia University Hospital in Taichung City, where medics used the case to warn people to avoid falling asleep with earbuds in.
Ear, nose and throat specialist Dr Tian Huiji, director of otorhinolaryngology, told OMG Taiwan that while people might listen to loud music during the day without experiencing sudden deafness, it is dangerous to do the same at night.
