Ann-Marie O’Gorman, 46, was pronounced dead at a hospital in Dublin after her husband found her unconscious in an en-suite bathroom at their family home
A grieving husband has issued a desperate warning after his wife was fatally electrocuted while holding a charging mobile phone in a bath.
Mum-of-three Ann-Marie O’Gorman, 46, was tragically pronounced dead at a hospital in Dublin after her husband found her unconscious in an en-suite bathroom at their family home on October 30, 2024.
Joe O’Gorman told Dublin District Coroner’s Court on Tuesday he had left home around 6.40pm to take their 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, where she might have been in the bath.
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Upon arriving home, Mr O’Gorman said he went into the bathroom to check on his wife. He described the horrifying moment he found her lying motionless on her side in the bath.
Mr O’Gorman revealed that his wife was unresponsive when he opened one of her eyelids, and it was then that he noticed her iPhone and a cable in the bath, which he quickly grabbed and tossed into a sink, Dublin Live reports.
As he lifted his out of the bath, Mr O’Gorman experienced a minor electric shock before calling to his eldest daughter, Leah, to ring the emergency services. While administering CPR, he noticed red marks on his wife’s hands and chest.
Despite suffering from Von Willebrand disease, a blood-clotting condition, and Graves’ disease, a thyroid condition, the inquest heard that Ms O’Gorman was “fit and healthy”, hitting the gym at 6am every morning.
Responding to the coroner’s questions, Mr O’Gorman said he initially thought his wife had fallen asleep in the bath but realised what had likely happened after spotting her iPhone in the water.
He believes he avoided a larger shock when lifting her from the bath because he was wearing flip-flops. He explained that a three-metre extension cable had been plugged into a bedroom socket while his wife’s phone was “just barely in the water.”
Mr O’Gorman expressed frustration that iPhones do not carry warnings about the risk of contact with water while charging.
Warning others of the potential dangers, he claimed that many people are being misled into “a false illusion of safety” by mobile phone manufacturers like Apple, who advertise their products as waterproof.
Mr O’Gorman highlighted a similar tragic incident in London back in March 2017, and the death of a child in the US due to a charging mobile phone in the bath.
He argued that warnings about such hazards should be clearly displayed on all electronic device packaging. “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,” Mr O’Gorman said.
“There should be warnings that this is dangerous,” 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 Dr Heidi Okkers, who performed a post-mortem on Ms O’Gorman’s body, noted electrocution-type burns on her chest and left arm, as well as severe burns on her right index finger and thumb. Dr Okkers emphasised that water is “an excellent conductor of electricity.”
The pathologist revealed that there was no evidence of any other health condition contributing to Ms O’Gorman’s untimely death, and toxicology tests confirmed she had neither alcohol nor drugs in her system. The cause of death was determined as electrocution by a charging cable and phone while in the bath.
The inquest heard there had was no defect with the phone, charger or cable. The coroner extended her sympathies to Ms O’Gorman’s family and called the incident a “a horrendous tragedy.”
