Victim is diabetic, which slowed his recovery and led to a major infection

Apr 1, 2014 14:17 GMT  ·  By

Tim Tyrrell from Minneapolis–Saint Paul learned the hard way that knockoff chargers are dangerous. He bought one off e-Bay and ended up with an electrical burn which later developed into a horrible infection, and hospitalization.

Because of the counterfeit iPhone charger, Tyrrell has spent more than a week in the hospital. Recalling the incident, he tells Fox 9, “It was just a pretty fast, quick jolt. Basically, the charger turned black and, it's where the USB cord connects to the outlet, had a little mini-explosion. It kind of bruised the fingers inside where I plugged it in.”

What started out as a quarter-sized wound ended up as a huge infection that spread across his entire palm. Because of his diabetes, the healing process is slow and complicates things a great deal for the doctors trying to save his hand.

His advice to people who choose cheap counterfeits is “Just be careful. I mean, obviously, I've been in here for a week and probably have to go in for my fourth operation tomorrow,” he added.

Apple last year opened a program offering original iPhone chargers at a discount in exchange for knockoffs, in an effort to rid the market of the fakes.