iPhone 5 screen explodes in China; owner injures her eye

In a freak accident in China, a woman injured her eye when her iPhone 5 smartphone exploded in her hand, reports ZDNet . 

The woman whose family name is Li was on the phone with a friend for over 40 minutes, when suddenly she felt the screen of her iPhone turning warm against her face. Li soon looked at her phone to check it, only to find that the touch screen wasn’t responding to her attempts to end the call. Following some more tries, the screen of the iPhone exploded and the resultant debris scratched her cornea. 

The iPhone 5 unit that exploded

Li told reporters that she could feel some debris piercing her eyes soon after the explosion, making it difficult for her to open them. Her colleagues immediately rushed her to the hospital, where doctors told her that her eyeball had turned red and inflamed, and she also suffered from some bruising.

The iPhone 5 unit that Li had purchased in September last year had developed a small dent on the top right corner of the screen after she dropped it. While the phone remained useable after that drop, Li said that its responsiveness had dropped since.

While many instances of injuries due to an iPhone have popped up over the past month, this one is among the few where the power adapters weren’t involved. A 23-year-old Chinese woman allegedly died from an electric shock when using an iPhone 5 while it was being charged, following which Apple issued a trade-in offer for older power adapters and started an awareness drive to get users to use genuine chargers. 

The claims were first made by her family members. According to TNW, the older sister of the alleged victim, Ma Ailun, went to Sina Weibo, China’s popular social network, demanding an explanation from Apple while urging people not to use their phones while charging them.