A mother of three has tragically lost her life, with an inquest hearing how she was fatally electrocuted while trying to charge her iPhone while in the bath. Sounding like a Final Destination situation, the 46-year-old was described as 'fit and healthy' before her untimely passing.
It might sound wild that you can be killed by an iPhone in 2025, but as reported by The Sun, County Dublin's Ann-Marie O'Gorman was electrocuted while holding a device that was plugged in and charging.
The outlet explains how Joe O'Gorman found his wife unconscious in their en-suite bathroom. He noticed red marks on her hands and chest, and after he lifted out of the bath, he says he felt a 'small' electric shock. Although he performed CPR on his wife, Ann-Marie O'Gorman was pronounced dead at Beaumont Hospital on October 30, 2024.
After leaving the family home at around 6.40 pm to drop their youngest daughter off at a disco, Joe O'Gorman said he had a short call with his wife at 7.58 pm and informed her that he was driving home.
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He said that he found her lying on her side in the bath, showing no sign of movement.
Although she suffered from the blood-clotting Von Willebrand disease and the thyroid-related Graves disease, the inquest heard how O'Gorman was healthy and attended the gym every morning.
State pathologist Heidi Okkers carried out a postmortem and confirmed O’Gorman had electrocution-type burns to her chest and left arm, as well as full-thickness burns on her right index finger and thumb.
Giving evidence at the coroner's court, Mr. O'Goman said that users are being lulled into "a false illusion of safety” by manufacturers, with many championing how devices are waterproof.
He said that the three-meter extension cable had been plugged into a socket in the bedroom, although the iPhone was "just barely in the water." O'Gorman maintains that Apple has no warning about the danger of death involving water and charging.
He pointed to a similar death involving a London man in March 2017, also saying that he'd heard about a child who died in the USA.
The case of Ann-Marie O'Gorman is a tragic reminder of a 24-year-old Russian woman losing her life in a similar case in 2020. The New York Post reported how Olesya Semenova’s lifeless body was discovered by her roommate in their Arkhangelsk apartment.
At the time, the Russian emergencies ministry reiterated: "The tragedy once again reminds us that water and an electrical appliance connected to the mains are incompatible.
"The same applies to any mobile device. If you drown a smartphone, the worst thing is its failure. But when it is connected to the network, we see what the consequences are."
O'Gorman reiterated that he wants to spread the message in hopes of saving others from a similar fate to his wife.
He says hazards should be displayed on packaging, adding: "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."
Calling manufacturers to task, he concluded: "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."
The coroner offered their condolences, referring to the incident as 'a horrendous tragedy'.