A woman has revealed that she accidentally swallowed her AirPod while distractedly talking to a friend because she mistook it for a vitamin.
Tanna Barker, a 52-year-old realtor from Utah, went viral on TikTok when she shared the “embarassing” story of how she ate one of her AirPods. Now, many viewers have sent her advice as she waits for the wireless headphone to naturally pass.
“Okay, I’m gonna be very vulnerable right now,” she began the video, which has been viewed more than 2.7m times since it was posted on Saturday 9 September. “I had a situation happen this morning that I’m still dealing with.”
Barker explained that she was on her morning walk when she ran into her friend, Kathleen, who she hasn’t seen in quite some time. “She was filling me in on her life and it’s been very, very busy and full and a lot went on, actually,” she said.
However, Barker couldn’t hold back her laughter as she recounted: “Halfway through my walk, I decided to take my vitamins. So I put my vitamins in, took a drink and I was like: ‘Man, those are stuck.’”
She then “guzzled” her water to wash the vitamin down, said goodbye to her friend, and kept going on her walk. But when she went to reach for one of her AirPods, she realised it wasn’t in her pocket.
“My pills were in my hand. I swallowed my AirPod,” Barker said, laughing.
Much like anyone would do in Barker’s situation, she quickly called friends and professionals in the medical field who “all suggested the same thing” - to let the AirPod pass naturally. “I don’t know if anyone has ever done that, it’s embarrassing, but I did it and we’ll see what happens. I’m gonna follow the advice of professionals,” she added.
Despite swallowing her one AirPod, Barker pointed out that there’s still a “bonus” to the unfortunate situation: “I still have my right AirPod.”
She captioned her TikTok video with the hashtags: #istillcantbelieveit, #whatinthelivingheck, #thistooshallpass, #whatthe, #iamshook, and #getoutofmybelly.
Barker’s viral video has since received thousands of comments from TikTok users, a majority of them mostly curious whether the AirPod was still working inside Barker’s body and if she can hear music from her stomach.
“The first thing I’d do is play music and see if I can hear it from my stomach,” one person commented.
“Play music really loud so you can track its progress,” another user joked.
“I’d literally have a panic attack knowing an AirPod is in me,” said someone else. “Not knowing what will happen, possibly blowing up.”
In a follow-up video, Barker revealed that it was actually her husband’s AirPod that she swallowed, but he’s maintained a positive outlook on the situation. She recently told her husband that she was going grocery shopping and he asked how long she’ll be out, before telling Barker: “Oh, never mind. I could track you.”
Many Apple users are aware that wireless AirPods are able to be tracked on the iPhone’s Find My Devices feature. When one TikToker asked Barker if she’s tried locating the AirPod with the tracking device to see if it still worked, she revealed that the app signaled her AirPods were in her stomach. “We did ‘Find My’ AirPod yesterday and it worked! Today, I think the battery is dead,” Barker replied.
Speaking to The Independent, Barker explained that she was told by medical professionals to let it pass naturally, and that it shouldn’t cause any harm because the battery is encased in the AirPod. “One of them said: ‘Well did she swallow both?’ He said that’s when it could probably cause a problem because the magnets, they could be attracted,” she explained.
Days later, Barker said she became “nervous” that the device hadn’t passed naturally yet. “I was like: ‘Okay, this is the end of the third day.’ I was low-key nervous. I was starting to get like: ‘Huh, this could be bad,’” she revealed.
But on the third day, the saga finally came to a close when Barker updated her followers on her recent bowel movements. “When I first posted my post, one of the hashtags was #ThisTooShallPass… and it has,” she joked in a video posted on Monday.
Barker still maintained a positive outlook throughout the ordeal, as she stressed the importance of finding humour in life’s tricky situations. “You have to find humour in life, right?” she said. ”You have to maintain that so you can survive. I think that's just protecting your mindset. When things like these come along, you want to be able to have that mindset that you can just make it through. This too shall pass, you know?”
