Charging Phone Electrocutes, Kills Pregnant Woman In Bathtub

A pregnant 21-year-old woman in the French town of Saint-Martin-d'Hères near Grenoble was killed after being electrocuted by her cell phone in the bath, local law enforcement says.

The woman, who was eight-and-a-half months pregnant was found unconscious by her husband on New Year’s Eve, The Local France reports. Just weeks ahead of her due date, she was found submerged and unconscious in the bath Sunday. Her phone was still plugged in next to her body and is being looked at as the cause for electrocution. Although most chargers have water safety protections, many extension cords to power outlets do not have the same features.

According to local publication Le Dauphiné Libéré, her mobile phone was charging “in the immediate vicinity” of the bathtub. Police are still investigating her cause of death but told the paper that electrocution is believed to be her cause of death.

Her husband broke down the door after she failed to answer his phone calls and he immediately reached out to emergency services. But medics were unable to resuscitate her after she had gone into cardiac arrest. The unborn child also died as a result of the incident.

This is not the first incident of a bathroom phone electrocution.

In July 2017, 14-year-old New Mexico girl Madison Coe took her phone into the bathroom and placed its power cords on a towel to keep the electronic devices dry. She took a photo of the setup and sent a message to a friend, "When you use (an) extension cord so you can plug your phone in while you're in the bath."

She was electrocuted soon after.

"She had her phone plugged into the extension cord and it was by the bathtub, and I did it, she did it, we all had sat there in the bathtub with our phones plugged in and played our games," the girl's stepmother, told CNN at the time.