In 2022, a Texas family filed a lawsuit against Apple for damaging their son’s hearing after an Amber Alert went off while he was wearing Airpods. According to Google, the maximum volume of phone headphones is around 105 decibels. The family are claiming that the son now requires hearing aids after his eardrum ruptured.
Is this plausible?
To rupture? I would be highly dubious of that claim. Without some kind of factor weakening or otherwise changing things, there’s no headphones out there that could do that, even with a perfect seal.
Damage hearing, absolutely. But that’s a far cry from rupturing an ear drum. That’s hard enough to do on purpose. I’ve seen people try to clap hands on the ears to attempt a rupture and never seen it work.
I’ve had some big fucking handguns go off near my ear without a rupture. Couldn’t hear shit for days in one case, but no injury to the membrane itself. Fuck, I’ve been right near the stage for Iron Maiden and was fine the next day.
Eardrums are hard to rupture at all, much less without a very good seal and large amounts of air moving.
Is there any actual evidence in this case? Is it easy in Texas to fake a claim like this?
No idea. Don’t know anything about the case, nor any texas specific lawsuit issues.