A mother of three from Ireland died after she held her charging phone while in the bath. According to the Irish Mirror, 46-year-old Ann-Marie O’Gorman died on October 30, 2024, at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin after she was found unresponsive in the bathroom.
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Mother Of Three Dead After Charging Phone Fell Into Bath
Her husband, Joe O’Gorman, is now concerned about phone companies that fail to warn customers about potential electrocution, especially when it comes to phones promoted to be waterproof.
Joe told coroner Cróna Gallagher that he was on a 23-second phone call with his wife at 7:58 PM the evening of her death. He was driving home and believed she was in the bath during the call.
Once he arrived home, he entered the bathroom to chat more with his wife. That’s when he found her lying on her side in the bath, completely unresponsive.
Joe then noticed her iPhone connected to a cable in the bath. He swiftly grabbed it and threw it in the sink. Joe recalled getting a small electric shock when lifting his wife from the bath. He proceeded to order his eldest daughter to call emergency services.
The husband believed he had avoided receiving a worse shock since he was wearing flip-flops. He also recalled seeing his wife’s phone “just barely in the water” while plugged into a three-meter extension cable connected to a socket in the bedroom.
Husband Pleads For Warning Labels
Joe is now complaining about Apple not warning users about the dangers of getting their iPhone in contact with water while it’s charging. At the inquest on Tuesday, September 30, he demanded that Apple send out this hazard. He hopes that in doing this, it could save other people’s lives.
“The only thing you hear about is how these phones are great in up to six feet of water,” said Joe. “It gives people the idea that you can have your phone near water.”
Heidi Okkers performed a post-mortem on his wife’s body and noticed she had electrocution-type burns. They were all over her chest and left arm, which Joe had noticed when pulling her from the tub.
Okkers pointed out that water is “an excellent conductor of electricity.” She then said her cause of death was electrocution by a charging cable and phone while in a bath.
Paul Collins, a consultant forensic engineer, believed that her phone fell in the water on accident. While she was turning in the bath to retrieve it, her right-hand finger came into contact with a shower handle, causing her electrocution.
“Strange to say it but if she had not taken her hand out of the bath, she would probably still be alive,” Collins noted.