June 27, 2014 — A Filipina nurse was killed while talking on a phone that was plugged into a faulty charger.
Sheryl Aldeguer, 28, of North Gosford was found dead in her apartment on April 23. She came to Australia to work as a nurse. Authorities have established that she was electrocuted while speaking on a mobile phone which she had been charging. It is believe that the charger was a “faulty knock-off” which released a sudden, high-voltage, electrical burst.
“The voltage seems to have travelled up through the faulty charger into her phone. She was wearing earplugs and also operating a laptop which was also plugged into a power point,” said Fair Trading representative Lynelle Collins to the Sydney Morning Herald. “The electricity then went down through the earplugs into the laptop and into the power point,” Collins added.
Aldeguer’s body was found by her friends a day after the incident. She had sustained burns to her chest and ears. It is thought that she died instantly.
Her friends believe that she procured the charger from a mobile accessories outlet in Sydney. Australian authorities have raided the shop and seized all of the non-standard chargers that were on sale. They have also issued a warning to Australian consumers to steer clear of the faulty products because of the serious risk of fire and electrocution.
Fair Trading Commissioner Rod Stowe has urged all consumers to discard any non-standardized chargers and bend the prongs so they cannot be used again. “It’s a wake-up call to people who buy cheap electronic products without realizing potential hazards,” said Stowe.
“If the deal is too good to be true, it usually is and the product can prove fatal,” Stowe added.
People should not use mobile phones while they are being charged because there is risk of being getting electric shocks.
Genuine products usually contain a number of layers of protection, while cheap faulty ones have only the bare minimum.