Don’t Bring Your iPhone 12 Near a Cardiac Device

When Dr. Singh, an expert in cardiac electrophysiology, learned the iPhone 12’s MagSafe accessory contains a strong magnet, he suspected it could inadvertently deactivate implanted cardiac devices. Out of convenience, these devices have switches that respond to external magnets; they can turn defibrillators off, and make pacemakers deliver strong electrical impulses that could cause ventricular fibrillation. 

To test his suspicion, Dr. Singh brought an iPhone with MagSafe to a patient’s chest, and to his amazement, it deactivated the defibrillator in the patient’s chest. When he removed the phone, the defibrillator returned to normal function.