Calls for better warnings on devices after Dublin woman fatally electrocuted in bath

Seán McCárthaigh

Calls for warning notices on electronic devices have been made following the death of a woman who was electrocuted in the bath by a charging mobile phone.

Speaking at Dublin District Coroner’s Court on Tuesday, the deceased’s husband, Joe O’Gorman, said many people are being lulled into “a false illusion of safety” by phone manufacturers promoting their products as waterproof.

His wife, Ann-Marie O’Gorman, 46, a mother of three from Shanliss Avenue, Santry, Dublin, was pronounced dead at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin on October 30th last year.

She was rushed to hospital after her husband found her unresponsive in their family home.

Mr O’Gorman told the inquest that he had left home at around 6.40pm to drop the couple’s youngest daughter, Megan, to her first disco.

He told coroner, Cróna Gallagher, that he had a brief 23-second call with his wife at 7.58pm while driving home.

After arriving home, Mr O’Gorman said he went into the bathroom to tell his wife how their daughter was getting on.

He found her lying on her side in the bath with no sign of any movement, and she was unresponsive when he opened one of her eyelids.

He then noticed her iPhone and a cable in the bath, which he grabbed and threw into a sink.

Mr O’Gorman said he got a small electric shock as he was lifting his wife out of the bath before calling to his eldest daughter, Leah, to dial the emergency services.

While giving her CPR, Mr O’Gorman said he noticed red marks on her hands and chest.

Although she suffered from both Von Willebrand disease, a blood-clotting condition, and Graves’ disease, a thyroid condition, the inquest heard she was “fit and healthy”.

Mr O’Gorman said he believed being electrocuted when lifting her out of the bath because he was wearing flip-flops.

He described how a three-metre extension cable had been plugged into a socket in the bedroom while his wife’s phone was “just barely in the water.”

Mr O’Gorman complained that there is no warning on iPhones about the danger of coming in contact with water while they are being charged.

He noted that another man had died in similar circumstances in London in March 2017, while he was also aware of the death of a child in the US linked to having a charging mobile phone in a bath.

Mr O’Gorman told the inquest that he wanted the message to go out about the hazard created by charging a mobile phone in bathrooms so that it could save lives.

He said warnings should be displayed prominently on the outside of the packaging of all electronic devices.

Pathologist Heidi Okkers, who carried out the postmortem, observed electrocution burns on her chest and left arm and full-thickness burns on her index finger and thumb.

She said there was no evidence that a health condition had caused her death, and toxicology tests showed she had taken no alcohol or drugs.

She attributed the cause of death as electrocution by a charging cable and phone while in a bath.

Forensic engineer, Paul Collins, who examined the scene at the request of gardaí, said that an electric current of just 2 amps, which is typical for mobile phone chargers, was “more than enough” to kill a person.

The coroner said she would consider which parties needed to be notified about the concerns raised at the inquest and would contact them in due course.

Although she noted that Mr O’Gorman’s criticism was directed at Apple, Dr Gallagher said it was a wider issue, as the use of electronic devices in bathrooms had become quite common.

The coroner returned a verdict of death by misadventure.