A Dublin woman was fatally electrocuted while holding a charging mobile phone in a bath last year, an inquest has heard.
Her husband, Joe O’Gorman, expressed concern that many people are being lulled into “a false illusion of safety” by mobile phone manufacturers that promote that their equipment is waterproof.
Ann-Marie O’Gorman (46), a mother-of-three from Shanliss Avenue, Santry, was pronounced dead at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin on October 30th, 2024. Her husband had earlier found her unresponsive in a bathroom at their family home.
Mr O’Gorman told Dublin District Coroner’s Court on Tuesday that he had a 23-second call with his wife while driving home, and he believes she may have been in the bath at that time.
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At home he found her lying on her side in the bath.
He noticed her iPhone and a cable in the bath which he grabbed and threw in a sink. He said he got a small electric shock when lifting his wife out of the bath.
Mr O’Gorman said he noticed red marks on her hands and chest while he was giving her CPR.
Although the deceased suffered from a blood clotting condition and Graves’ disease (a thyroid condition), the inquest heard she was “fit and healthy” and attended a gym every morning.
He outlined how a three-metre extension cable had been plugged into a socket in the bedroom.
Mr O’Gorman complained that there is no warning on certain phones about the danger of coming into contact with water while being charged.
He said another man 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 he wants the message to go out about the hazard created by charging a mobile phone in bathrooms.
He said warnings about such a hazard should be displayed prominently on the outside of packaging of all electronic devices.
“The only thing you hear about is how these phones are great in up to six feet of water. It gives people the idea that you can have your phone near water,” said Mr O’Gorman.
State Pathologist Heidi Okkers, who carried out a postmortem on Ms O’Gorman’s body, said she had electrocution-type burns to her chest and left arm as well as full thickness burns to her right index finger and thumb.
Dr Okkers said it is well known that water is “an excellent conductor of electricity”.
She attributed the cause of death as electrocution by a charging cable and phone while in a bath.
Dr Okkers said the electric charge that flowed through the victim’s body would have interfered with her normal heart rhythm.
A consultant forensic engineer, Paul Collins, who examined the scene, told the inquest he believed the phone fell into the water and that, in the process of turning in the bath to retrieve it, Ms O’Gorman’s finger came into contact with a shower attachment which caused the electric current to pass through her body.
The engineer said an electric current of just two amps, which is typical for mobile phone chargers, is enough to kill a person.
Mr Collins said he found no fault with the phone, the charger or the cable. He said people should not take mobile phones into a bathroom.
Mr Collins said he would not be prepared to say there would be no risk of danger if Ms O’Gorman’s phone had not been charging at the time.
The coroner, Dr Cróna Gallagher, observed that electricity sockets are not generally found in bathrooms in the EU because of the danger posed by electrical equipment coming into contact with water.
The coroner said she would consider what parties needed to be notified about the concerns raised at the inquest and would contact them in due course.
Returning a verdict of death by misadventure because of the risk factor associated with the use of a mobile phone in a bath, the coroner offered her condolences to Ms O’Gorman’s family.
