He sold his kidney for an iPhone 4, now is bed-ridden for life

When you see someone holding an iPhone, you probably say it in your mind, ‘he sure is a rich dude.’  Well, iPhones don’t come in cheap, and there has always been a joke flying around the Apple flagship pocketables — ‘you need to sell a kidney to buy one of those shiny things.’

But, while that was simply a joke, it looks like one boy took it literally. Around 7 years ago, a 17-year-old Chinese student was desperate to get himself an iPhone 4. Reason — it was the popular trend around school and that a few many students owned one of the Apple handsets. And everyone wanted one for sure. Xiao Wang wanted one too, but could not afford it. So he planned to trade-off one of his own kidney to get that Apple-Logo’ed smartphone for himself.

He decided to head to an underground hospital in China, who promised him that everything would be carried out with care and that he would lead a normal life as usual, with only one kidney. So he sold one kidney, which fetched him just enough to afford one iPhone 4, that he always desired. According to a report from a Chinese daily, the kidney extraction surgery offered him $3,200, just enough to buy himself the Apple iPhone 4.    

However, the trade-off was a good deal after all. Wang learned that his surgery was not a successful one and has now ended up placing him in bed for the rest of his life. Wang later learned that the wounds from the surgery did not heal well, got infected and eventually affected his other kidney too. In the bargain, the kid now has to undergo dialysis for the rest of his life. What was worst was that his parents found out later, and are now struggling to get him treated as they are not able to afford it.

Apple’s iPhones are getting ridiculously expensive, and with teens today wanting to flaunt one to their friends, it won’t be a surprise if we could soon be hearing many more similar incidents ahead. A survey from PiperJaffery reported that in 2017, 82% kids around the age of 16 years expected their next phone to be an iPhone. Yes, technology is definitely getting cheaper by the year, but futuristic technology is getting far more expensive than one can afford today. Nevertheless, the craving for owning cutting edge technology is not new, and definitely not worth trading your body parts for.