A MUM-OF-THREE was fatally electrocuted while holding a charging mobile phone in a bath last year, her inquest heard today.
Ann-Marie O’Gorman, 46, from Shanliss Avenue, Santry, Co Dublin, was pronounced dead at Beaumont Hospital on October 30, 2024, after her husband found her unresponsive in an en-suite bathroom at their home.
Husband Joe O’Gorman expressed safety concerns following his wife’s death
Collins CourtsAnn-Marie O’Gorman was electrocuted while holding a charging mobile phone in a bath[/caption]
Her husband, Joe O’Gorman, expressed concern at Dublin District Coroner’s Court that many people are being lulled into “a false illusion of safety” by mobile phone manufacturers for promoting how their equipment is waterproof.
Mr O’Gorman gave evidence that he had left home at around 6.40pm to drop the couple’s youngest daughter, Megan, to her first disco in Portmarnock.
He told coroner Crona Gallagher that he had a brief call with his wife at 7.58pm while driving home at a time he believed she might have already been in the bath.
After arriving home, Mr O’Gorman said he went into the bathroom and found her lying on her side in the bath with no sign of any movement.
At that point, he noticed her iPhone and a cable in the bath which he grabbed and threw in 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 CPR to her, Mr O’Gorman said he noticed red marks on his wife’s hands and chest.
Although the deceased suffered from both Von Willebrand disease – a blood clotting condition – and Graves’ disease – a thyroid condition – the inquest heard she was “fit and healthy” and attended a gym at 6am every morning.
Mr O’Gorman outlined 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.
SAFETY PLEA
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 one other person’s life.
He claimed warnings about such a hazard should be displayed prominently on the outside of packaging of all electronic devices.
‘THERE SHOULD BE WARNINGS’
Mr O’Gorman said: “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.
“There should be warnings that this is dangerous.”
Mr O’Gorman added: “There’s nothing being done about this whatsoever by any provider to say this is a hazard you could die from. That is all that people have to know.”
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.
She attributed the cause of death as electrocution by a charging cable and phone while in a bath.
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 on what she described as “a horrendous tragedy”.
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