Texas Parents Claim Apple AirPods Caused Sons' Permanent Hearing Loss in $75,000 Lawsuit

Texas parents Apple AirPods Carlos Gordoa Ariani Reyes Permanent hearing loss Amber alert design defect Tej Paranjpe Apple Facetime Bethany and James Modisette Garrett Wilhelm no duty of care distracted driving laws

By Lili Scott , Parent Herald May 23, 06:14 am

Photo: (Photo : JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Texas parents Carlos Gordoa and Ariani Reyes have filed a $75,000 lawsuit against Apple and claimed that their product, the AirPods, caused their son's permanent hearing loss.

The parents said their 12-year-old son was wearing the Apple AirPods while watching Netflix when an Amber alert went off. The unexpected alert punctured his eardrums and damaged his cochlea. The parents said their son, only cited as B.G. in court records, had the AirPods on low volume, but the alert caused "significant injuries."

The Gordoa family said that B.G. has also suffered from vertigo, nausea, and dizziness due to his hearing problem. He will need to wear a hearing aid for the rest of his life and deal with the mental and emotional trauma of losing his sense of hearing, per the Insider.

Apple AirPods had a Design Defect

The lawsuit also claimed that the Apple AirPods had a design defect and did not have enough warning about the potential risks. Their lawyer, Tej Paranjpe, cited that there should have been a self-adjustment feature in the volume whenever Amber alerts are disseminated.

The family bought the AirPods in November 2019. The incident happened in May 2020. The boy is now 14 years old, and he's still struggling to adjust to his new lifestyle as a person with hearing disabilities who will need consistent clinical visits to his doctors.

Speaking with News 4 San Antonio, the mother said they are very sad, frustrated, and slightly angry because B.G. was a healthy and athletic boy before the incident. Now, his life has been "severely altered."

The mom also said that no parent wants this to happen to their children, so they ensure precautions with the use of any device. The family claims that Apple should have known the impact of sudden volume increases when Amber alerts go off at an extremely high volume.

"Had Apple designed the AirPods to self-adjust to safe levels or provided warnings about the volume increases associated with alerts, this boy would be living a normal life," their lawyer pointed out.

Texas Parents Sue Apple, Facetime for Daughter's Death

Apple has yet to respond to the Gordoas' lawsuit as of press time. It comes as the company is also involved in a lawsuit from another pair of Texas parents in 2017 who claimed that their Facetime software was responsible for the death of their 5-year-old daughter.

Bethany and James Modisette sued the company in 2017 and claimed that Apple had a design flaw in Facetime's lockout technology that should have prevented its use while on the road. Garrett Wilhelm, 22, slammed onto the car of the Modisette while he was using the app. Police found that Wilhelm's Facetime was still active while investigating the accident scene.

However, in 2018, the Texas courts determined that Apple had "no duty of care" to the accident involving the Modisette family and Wilhelm. The court emphasized that distracted driving laws make the driver solely responsible for this accident, per JDSupra.