A Mum of three was fatally electrocuted after using her charging phone whilst in the bath, an inquest has heard. Ann-Marie O’Gorman, 46, from Shanliss Avenue, Santry, County Dublin, was found unresponsive in an en-suite bathroom by her husband at their home in October 2024.
Joe O’Gorman told the coroner that he had spoken to his wife at 7.58pm as he drove home from dropping their youngest daughter off at a disco. He believes that his wife might already have been in the bath at the time of that conversation. On his return home, Mr O’Gorman walked into the bathroom to find his wife unresponsive, lying on her side in the bath.
Mr O’Gorman told how he noticed his wife’s iPhone in the bath along with a cable.
As he lifted his wife out of the tub, he said he got a small electric shock before calling to his eldest daughter, Leah, to dial the emergency services.
Mr O’Gorman attempted in vain to give his wife CPR, noticing red marks on her chest and hands.
The widower is now calling for increased awareness around using mobile phones in the bath, something he believes phone companies do not sufficiently do.
He 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 said that a three-metre charging cable was plugged into the pair’s bedroom, stretching into the bathroom so that the phone was only just in the water.
He 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 performed the post-mortem, said Mrs O’Gorman had electrocution-type burns to her chest and left arm as well as full thickness burns to her right index finger and thumb.
The court heard how the deceased suffered from both Von Willebrand disease – a blood clotting condition – and Graves’ disease – a thyroid condition, but was fit and healthy at the time of her death.
The pathologist said there was no evidence that any other health condition was a contributory factor in her death, while tests showed no alcohol or drugs in her body.
She attributed the cause of death as electrocution by a charging cable and phone while in a bath.