Texas teen electrocuted while holding cellphone in a bathtub

[+Warwagon MVC]

 

Quote

 

UBBOCK, TX (KCBD) -

A 14-year-old girl from Lubbock died early Sunday morning after being electrocuted in a bathtub.

 

Madison Coe's mother and grandmother tell us she was in the bathtub, and either plugged her phone in or simply grabbed her phone that was already plugged in. It happened at her father's house in Lovington, NM.

Madison just graduated 8th grade from Terra Vista Middle School in Frenship ISD. 

 

"It is with heavy hearts that Frenship ISD mourns the loss of Madison Coe. We wish to share our heartfelt sympathy with her family and friends as we carry the burden of this tragedy together," officials with FISD said.

Madison was expected to attend high school in Houston, as her family was in the process of moving.

 

"I call her my shining star," her grandmother, Donna O'Guinn, said. 

 

Madison Coe was a 14-year-old, wise beyond her years.

 

"She was very smart, a very good student in school. She just loved life," O'Guinn said. 

 

Madison had so much of her life ahead of her, as she made an impact on those around her with her positivity and kindness.

 

She was a basketball player and the number one chair with her tuba in the band at Terra Vista Middle School. 

 

"She was just sweet to everybody and everybody loved her," O'Guinn said. 

 

As O'Guinn fights back the tears, she says it is hard to understand why her granddaughter’s life was taken far too soon.

 

Her family says Madison was in the bathtub and grabbed her phone that was plugged into a charger in a bathroom outlet.

 

"There was a burn mark on her hand, the hand that would have grabbed the phone. And that was just very obvious that that’s what had happened," O'Guinn said. 

Madison's family believes this terrible accident is something that could happen to anyone.

 

But now their mission is to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

 

"This is such a tragedy that doesn’t need to happen to anyone else. And we want something good to come out of this as awareness of not using your cell phone in the bathroom as it is plugged in and charging," O'Guinn said. 

 

http://www.kptv.com/story/35851834/texas-teen-electrocuted-after-cell-phone-accidentally-falls-in-bathtub

[Draconian Guppy]

Weird unless the phone got really really wet, don't really see how it happened. 

[+Warwagon MVC]

2 minutes ago, Draconian Guppy said:

Weird unless the phone got really really wet, don't really see how it happened. 

Well what if when she grabs the phone, water goes down inside between the charge cable and the charging port.

[LimeMaster]

1 minute ago, Draconian Guppy said:

Weird unless the phone got really really wet, don't really see how it happened. 

So you browse Neowin in the bathrub?

[Draconian Guppy]

2 minutes ago, LimeMaster said:

So you browse Neowin in the bathrub?

I thought that was pretty obvious

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

6 minutes ago, warwagon said:

"And we want something good to come out of this as awareness of not using your cell phone in the bathroom as it is plugged in and charging,"

Surely not something that needed to be spelt out?

[LimeMaster]

7 minutes ago, Draconian Guppy said:

I thought that was pretty obvious

The toilet thing was obvious, not the bathtub thing.

[aberg]

A phone on charge, isn't that 5V, 1-2A?

Nobody dies of that.

[xendrome]

Plus this should have thrown a breaker in the panel. I am betting there is more to this story and the actual fault lies in the wiring of the home/bathroom.

[DocM]

Most US residential lighting circuits are fused for 15-20 amps, and it's the current that kills you.

 

5 milliamps is similar to a Taser's output.

 

10 milliamps can lock muscles solid.

 

About 75 milliamps can cause ventricular fibrillation. Unresolved, you're dead in a few minutes.

 

100 milliamps for 2-5 seconds and you're worm food.

 

About 4 amps and you go into a sudden cardiac arrest.

 

About 5 amps causes tissue burns.

 

A 15-20 amp breaker wasn't going to save her.

[Draconian Guppy]

1 minute ago, DocM said:

Most US residential lighting circuits are fused for 15-20 amps, and it's the current that kills you.

 

5 milliamps is similar to a Taser's output.

 

10 milliamps can lock muscles solid.

 

About 75 milliamps can cause ventricular fibrillation. Unresolved, you're dead in a few minutes.

 

100 milliamps for 2-5 seconds and you're worm food.

 

About 4 amps and you go into a sudden cardiac arrest.

 

About 5 amps causes tissue burns.

 

A 15-20 amp breaker wasn't going to save her.

But don't chargers have some sort of inbuilt protection as well in case of something like this?

[DocM]

The cheap ones I've seen bundled with phones, or in the aftermarket, vary widely in their quality, surge protection, what fuses?, and normally put out at least 2100 milliamps. More if they offer a rapid charge feature.

 

Dry skin offers more insulation, but if wet and the moisture is the least bit ionic ....

Edited July 11, 2017 by DocM

[riot]

Building code says that the bathroom should have GFI outlets, which would have prevented this from happening.  I wonder if there was one installed and it failed, or if there wasn't one at all.

[DocM]

True for new construction, or regularly inspected rental, multi-family, or public housing, but most old houses aren't inspected until they're sold again. This could be decades.  Even then, such sale inspections vary wildly in quality, with inspections accepted from some city employees brother in law etc.

 

Been there, seen that.

[Astra.Xtreme]

11 minutes ago, riot said:

Building code says that the bathroom should have GFI outlets, which would have prevented this from happening.  I wonder if there was one installed and it failed, or if there wasn't one at all.

If the outlet had a GFCI, it's possible that it wouldn't trip fast enough to prevent a fetal shock in the bathtub, or there was still a route for current to flow between hot and neutral, which wouldn't indicate the current imbalance that the GFCI is looking for.

 

It doesn't take much electrical current to be fatal, and being in a pool of water allows that current to get to your heart pretty easily.

[jesseinsf]

I'm sorry to hear that had happened to her and may she RIP. Now, the electric socket has been around for a very long time. Enough time to where we know that it isn't wise to sit in water and grab anything that is plugged in.

[DocM]

And experience does little good since it's a mistake usually made but once.

[FloatingFatMan]

Quote

Madison Coe was a 14-year-old, wise beyond her years.

Yeah... I think I'm gonna have to disagree on that assessment of her...

 

Death by stupid.

[Xahid]

15 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Yeah... I think I'm gonna have to disagree on that assessment of her...

 

Death by stupid.

harsh but true.

[Shiranui]

I have touched and received shocks from 220-240V bare wires on four occasions in my life (the first was around the age of three) and I am still here.

Granted, I was not in the bath on any of those occasions, but I fail to see how the low voltage and current of a phone and charger could kill you.

Perhaps it was a dodgy transformer in the charger and a lot of bad luck.

Maybe there was a lot of steam in the air and it was the mains that got her. In which case the fact that it was a phone is irrelevant.

[Gone]

Quote

...

Madison Coe was a 14-year-old, wise beyond her years.

 

"She was very smart, a very good student in school. She just loved life," O'Guinn said. 

...

Uses electronics while plugged into the wall outlet while in the bathtub, electrocutes self, is considered wise beyond years.

[conna]

35 minutes ago, Shiranui said:

I have touched and received shocks from 220-240V bare wires on four occasions in my life (the first was around the age of three) and I am still here.

Granted, I was not in the bath on any of those occasions, but I fail to see how the low voltage and current of a phone and charger could kill you.

Perhaps it was a dodgy transformer in the charger and a lot of bad luck.

Maybe there was a lot of steam in the air and it was the mains that got her. In which case the fact that it was a phone is irrelevant.

That kind of voltage knocks you loose either from the burns or just the actual shock.  The lower voltage keeps you gripping onto it longer doing more damage.  IDK about the girl in the article but you will have a better chance at surviving a 240v than a 120v or a 48v strike. 

[gregwilson88]

I thought it's the current that kills, not the voltage. Current as low as 100 mA could be lethal, and she was a 14 year-old girl. Although it is true that victims of high voltage shocks have a better chance to survive than low voltage shocks. A typical charger these days uses 5V 2A, low voltage and high current.

 

Here's an article by Ohio State University about lethal electric shocks, if you're interested:

https://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~p616/safety/fatal_current.html

 

Anyways, I think the moral of the story is no matter how advanced technology has become, things that were dangerous can still be dangerous. Your phone might be waterproof, but you aren't shockproof.

[Astra.Xtreme]

11 hours ago, Shiranui said:

I have touched and received shocks from 220-240V bare wires on four occasions in my life (the first was around the age of three) and I am still here.

Granted, I was not in the bath on any of those occasions, but I fail to see how the low voltage and current of a phone and charger could kill you.

Perhaps it was a dodgy transformer in the charger and a lot of bad luck.

Maybe there was a lot of steam in the air and it was the mains that got her. In which case the fact that it was a phone is irrelevant.

Because your skin helps in your favor.  Plus it's not the voltage that kills you; it's the current.  Had you touched the wires to your tongue or given a less resistant path to your heart, it would have killed you.

[DocM]

I once received a vicious shock unplugging 240v equipment for a pretty tech  A failing old school plug shorted to its metal case/handle, so while extracting it kapow!! My grounded surgical booties completed the circuit.

 

Flew across the hall via muscle contractions, but dry skin resistance kept the core current low just long enough for "launch" to break the connection. Fortunately, a cardiologist and a cardiology nurse were down the hall.

 

Burns, tachycardia and 2+ hours in the ER cured me of doing that again without gloves.

Edited July 13, 2017 by DocM