Texas teen electrocuted after cell phone incident in bathtub

[zipplewrath]

18. The problem is the current

As you suggest, the real issue here is the current. In order to accomplish this, you either will need 110V going through the phone, OR you're going to need insanely low impedance through the human to ground. Achieving that whilst having the "outflow" be essentially a large surface area of the body seems in direct conflict. Of course if it is 110, then okay, you're potentially in trouble, although again, I'd be surprised just how much current the device could pass through these unintended circuits (both they body and the charging wire). Really, my suspicion is that that there was no functioning GFI in place (although they typically fail in the "off" position). And it would then seem the real lesson here is that one should bring things up to code once and a bit, especially something like this. And/or electronics should be properly wired and isolated.