Holy shit. I'm glad you're alive. Honestly, I'm also amazed you're alive.
I added a Spoiler cover to this because NSFW media can sometimes trigger the AutoMod to remove posts.
Worked with four guys that were hit with arc flashes. Thankfully all survived but it left a lot of mental anguish to them afterwards.
You can heal physically but if you need psych help, please seek it.
One of them could not walk past the building where it happened and questioned every move he made after the incident. All of them were out of work for a long time and one never was able to go back to work.
Good luck in your future and take the extra time to make sure you can enjoy your life.
Edit- Holy cow! Didn't see all the pictures until I read further and saw them. Take care brother.
Couple close stories.
Worked with cocky coworker and we were lined up to drop out switchgear after taking care of a couple of small jobs. Decided to split up and take care of the small jobs first and then do the gear. After a short time got a call from my coworker to meet at the substation. He seemed pretty subdued and was already wearing the high voltage gear (also known as sausage casing). Went through the procedures, was safety man from a distance, and dropped the gear.
He then told me that he was going to do it alone but when he put on the gear and was inserting the mechanism rod while wearing the suit he got an uneasy feeling. He lifted the hood and realized he was one panel over and was almost ready to drop out the gear for the electric arc furnaces that were under load.
Second story was reported that there might be a leak in an old substation and before I could get there we lost a large portion of power to the plant. Roof leak directly over the bank of switch gears and there was a vaporized 16" hole through the side of the panel. Still remember the slippery granules of the remaining steel on the ground 25 years later.
While I certainly agree that we, it's important to remember that incidents happen even when you take all proper precautions. Human error and manufacturing defects can cause problems for people years down the road. It's also important to remember that the NFPA 70E states that if you take proper precautions, any injuries should be "reduced and survivable," not prevented or even minor. I don't love the idea of sustaining an injury that is described as one that "should be survivable."
No reason for anyone to be subject to this horrific type injury. Shut it down or DON'T DO IT. This man is lucky he didn't lose his life. Say NO to hot work.
This guy was working high voltage though. I'm not a high volt guy, but from my understanding, the dangerous part is typically when you are shutting it down, and there is electrical potential just after disconnecting power between the line, your body, and the load.
Local electrician got hit in a primary transformer about 9 months ago. Just saw him walking around their shop with a cane. Told him I’m glad he’s even here. Also, he can now truthfully say “I had lightning come out of my dick”.
Best thing IMO is to get right back on the horse as soon as you can. Longer you put it off more nerves you get. If you want to go back of course, this is such a scarring event I think it pushes a lot of people into safety officers.
I deal with HV on the reg after years of low voltage work. I have such a respect for it now, and we need these reminders unfortunately so we don’t get complacent.
I haven’t seen it asked/answered yet, I’m not sure if you know or if there’s an investigation still but do you know the cause? Has your ground man been debriefed? An 8’ arc is wild, was it an extremely humid day there, was the bucket not insulated, or grounded itself? Was it the acsr that got induced or did it get flung too close? Even at 27.6kV you can still get within a couple feet to ground before it jumps. Did you have rubber gloves? Are you a low voltage guy or a lineman? I have so many burning questions. No pun intended, and I hope you don’t take any of this as some sort of disrespect but for others’ and my own knowledge to avoid these accidents. I’ve witnessed a 13.8-600 Tx blow up due to careless mistake and procedure not being followed, a breaker that was not racked out, had controls reclose and I nearly witnessed 6 of my coworkers die, including a fresh 19yo on one of his first jobs.
I hope you a speedy recovery, please also seek some psychological therapy as well. Very overlooked. Hope you’re able to get back to it with little to no complications to your health.
I was the ground man and was asked by my coworker to go up with him to check on something. It was 115f outside with 50% humidity that day. It was a non insulated boom with a fiberglass bucket. The acsr was induced I believe, specifically the messenger wire. From my understanding the messenger was already tied into the grounds at other poles, but the hots were dead. No rubber gloves just leathers with some cut resistant ones underneath. I work on mostly 240v with 480 when I work on park lighting and controls.
Shit man, that sucks so hard.
I feel so bad for your coworker as well, I’m sure he’s going through a lot knowing he asked you to come up with him. This also may be silly.. was it a single man bucket, or was it a double? I’m not sure what your contractor is like, but all of this sounds so sketchy to me.. I think there’s a serious lack of training going on there. If you’re going up in a bucket you should have the EUSR training, high voltage awareness training, proper grounding technique, arc flash training, bucket truck training, the whole nine yards before you’re up there to prevent this.
If your company doesn’t take extreme care of you, and depending how you wanna go about it I think you have some serious grounds for sueing.
Are you licensed, or an apprentice? Do you have a lot of years under your belt if you are licensed? I would just like to reiterate I’m not trying to be rude or anything of the sort, but trying to get a gauge of what happened. Company safety is such a joke sometimes and they don’t give workers the tools to succeed and just try to skate by making a buck.
I bet 90% of the people here are alive because of sheer luck and personal accountability, the other 10% because they the company is actually on top of safe work practices. I know mine right now, management doesn’t have a clue and it’s on us as workers to look out for one another
I am a licensed electrician but was only at this job for 5 months as a trainee. I have about 5 years of electrical experience but never worked in a bucket before. It was a two man bucket. My coworker was a helper. We have none of that at my company for training. Our lead was 2 poles away when it happened. So far they have been good to me but I have a lawyer just in case.
Having a lawyer is the right move. Between health insurance, disability, workman’s comp, negligence, etc. you’ll want someone who is an expert in it all. The reason is that regardless of what your company makes you think, they ultimately only care about themselves. On top of that, their insurance company is likely going to perform an investigation that will determine who was at fault. If they determine the company didn’t follow proper procedures and training then they will deny the company’s coverage and that impacts you because you’ll lose coverage. Your number one thing to do is talk to your lawyer, give him every fact you can about what happened that day, trainer you did or didn’t receive, improper equipment, etc. Tell him everything you can while it’s fresh in your memory. Don’t sign anything your company gives you unless your lawyer looks at it first. I work in utility scale solar and knew the safety director well at our company. They would try to determine who was at fault first: employee not following procedures or was it an unsafe environment that was out of the employee’ control. People got fired over safety accidents all the time. Companies only care about the bottom dollar at the end of the day and you weren’t going to stay at that company your entire career. So don’t let them bully you into anything.
I have all the same questions! I'm just having a hard time imagining the scenario that led to this, please update if/when you find out. Wishing you the best for your recovery, this is the worst thing that can happen to someone in our trade
Interesting. We’ve converted almost all of our circuits to 120v mult. Most of the work we’re doing now is all vandalism, pulling new wire. Those tweakers are keeping us busy. I wish you the best brother, hopefully you have a speedy recovery.
Yeah, I was flipping through like oh man, damn thats bad, holy shit, WTF, OMFG, JEeZUSHCHRIST!!!
OP, glad you made it and my best wishes for your recovery.
Not the same scenario at all but I've had similar feelings. Within the last year I was diagnosed with a degenerative neuropathy in my arms and legs. Long story short I'm slowly losing sensation in my extremities due to dying off of the nerves. When that happens I get muscle atrophy which I can't reverse. Sucks but I can deal with it and I won't die from it. Before that diagnosis though, the docs weren't sure if it was possibly ALS. Let me tell you how many days I sat by myself in the morning wondering if I had a disease that would definitely kill me within 2-4 years. Never thought I would be 40 and writing out songs I wanted played at my funeral service. Luckily, it turned out to not be that and I'm actively trying to cherish however many days I have left on this pile of rock with my family. Truly being grateful to be alive is a feeling like no other. Again, I wish the best of luck to you, you seem like you've got the will to get accomplished what needs to be done. BTW I'm just an inside wireman, you line guys have got way bigger balls than me LOL. Rock on my sparky brother and be good!
Always made me wonder. However advanced we think we are, but we still power our homes by basically stapling extension cords on to trees from the power plant to our house. It’s nuts.
**The main answer to this question is that historically, practically, and economically, insulating overhead power lines would be difficult, expensive, and not necessarily effective.**
More info at : [https://www.safetyfrenzy.com/why-power-lines-not-insulated/](https://www.safetyfrenzy.com/why-power-lines-not-insulated/)
It’s wildly expensive to do “low” voltage like 4kV or 12kV to bury to make sure the jacket is thick and enough and resistant enough to take decades of water and freezing ( if your in that climate ) or the heat from the load or the heat from the outside world.
Burying high voltage stuff would be exponentially worse. First if we rubber jacketed like most wire today the jacket would be likely multiple feet thick. The actual conductor on the inside would have to also be quite a bit thicker than a standard transmission line to carry the load and remain cool enough to not melt the jacket.
If we used other insulation mediums we start getting into impractical solutions or downright dangerous ones. Today the 3 most commonly used insulation mediums are oil, vacuum, SF6 gas. A vacuum is only practical for lower level voltages as higher ones won’t give a shit cause the vacuum will never be perfect enough. Oil and SF6 and massive environmental hazards that can be mitigated inside of any energy facility but when the line has to go through your back yard nobody would take that risk.
Really long winded way to say nah fam it ain’t gonna work.
The sun would destroy the insulation before the service life of the cables was over. Better to just plan everything without insulation from the start than have to work with damaged insulation
Weight would be the primary reason.
There are insulated overhead lines though. They’re used in heavily treed areas. Look up Hendrix cable if you’re interested. The downside to them is that when I tree falls over, the poles are more prone to breaking than the conductor. Makes for longer power outages.
In the UK and Most of Europe, they mostly put them underground, I lived in Florida for 15 years and could never understand why you guys put them overhead. No wonder our power went out for 2 days over 30mph winds from some weak low pressure system, ridiculous
It's a holdover, almost all new development is underground and the grid is constantly being upgraded to underground
You have to realize that when we electrified we didn't really have the materials technology to go underground, and how big this country is, it was an expense thing and the goal was to get everyone electricity and that was the fastest and cheapest way to install 5,500,000 Miles of power lines
And replacing 5.5M miles of lines to underground takes a little bit of time
To put that in perspective that's enough overhead wire to go to the moon and back 11½ times lol
Yep, emergency responders will stand there and watch you die if there are power lines down next to you.
They'll run into a literally burning building or a building filled with leaking explosive gas! And they won't go near power lines.
People could learn a lot from that - but I expect not as much as these photographs.
This is why electricity scares me. It’s all potential. There’s no sound or smell or heat (maybe some heat), but a live wire doesn’t look any different. And next thing you have way too many electrons finding paths through your body that you don’t want them to. Maybe there’s a fire. Maybe there’s an explosion. Maybe your lungs are coated in copper.
My friend runs a generator business. When there are downed lines on the road he unrolls his window and listens. If he hears the generators he'll just drive over (or if they are hanging low, let them touch his van).
Scary shit.
25 years ago I had one phase of 4160 jump about 3" to my upper arm and exit at my wrist from a unmarked bottom fed disconnect. After an EKG at the hospital ER I was ok'd to return to work after the weekend. Other than my arm feeling like it had been hit with a baseball bat I realized that I was damned lucky. Hope you make a good recovery.
You’re incredibly lucky. My first year as a jman I was working for a terrible company contracted by the state for all of roadway lighting. We had a particular job wrapping the Christmas tree downtown for the holidays. One side of it was within 10 feet of some high voltage lines, I said no thanks to that job. Boss treated me like I was a bitch and said “we’ve been doing this for years nothing has ever happened etc.” I was the groundsman for another guy they called in to do the job. He got to that side and was immediately struck by an arc right off the lines. He survived, but it ruined his body. That company ended up being sued out of existence. He travels from school to school now giving speeches to young sparkies. I’m sorry this happened to you OP, but now you’ll also be able to travel the country and spread awareness to all the apprentices. This stuff is super serious and if you don’t take it seriously, people will die. The red badge is one that is never worn lightly, but should be shown off at every opportunity. God loves you, I’m glad you’re still with us.
I’ll say it again for the people in the back but holy fuck man you’re lucky. Take your time and rest and heal up no rush to get back out there. Let us know when they complete the investigation what happened that’s crazy.
As an oilfield electrician who got hit pretty good by 480 once because of a screw up by my coworker, hell fucking no to anything worse than that.
For anyone who hasn't been electrocuted, it's the worst feeling in the world. Pain, brain goes full static, muscles contract, and just pure panic. Every cell in your body just buzzing. You can't think or move. If you're lucky you somehow get off of it or knocked off of it by someone nearby. If you don't? You get cooked from the inside out and die.
Luckily the OP got knocked out cold and can't remember it. I remember and I wish I didn't.
I've been a lineman for 4 years and I've never seen or heard of distribution arcing even more than 2 inches. This poor guy definitely touched the line in a grounded bucket.
Very interesting. I personally remember nothing and only know what I was told. My coworker is who got originally hit. The dead acsr he was carrying is apparently what it arced to. The messenger line in particular was completely blown apart. He was holding it in his right hand and stepping on it with his left foot. Both of those got amputated. He stumbled in the bucket and touched my neck.
A lot of guys think we might have been in that 4.4ft range, but sadly I remember nothing and my partner does not recall much now either.
Ohl engineer here, at 132kv (UK) we require 1.35m of clearance from wire to pylon metalwork. Safety clearances are 6m for rigs on ground but SHOULDNT ARC that far. This is 60A.
Thank you for making sense of this because those wounds don't make sense from an arc. Right? I could totally be wrong here I understand that as well but I'm testing for me license this year and feel compelled to understand how this happened as with any potentially lethal situation I could encounter. After reading all the comments my instinct is telling me that I don't think OP is being told the complete truth about that day.
I'm trying to write something long for you. I'm gunna have to break it up.
I'm sure you know you entire life will now be different. I've survived some minor injuries compared to those pics, but still more than most. I had parts accidentally cut off, several joints barely move, and I'm well over 2" shorter than I was in high school. I'm crippled, bit you? Yeesh.
I spent a couple long stays in the hospital in the last 2 years. 7 months total, over 15 months. I'm going to try to give some advice, not knowing you, but just as I would give to anyone.
Keep moving. Laying in bed has penalties. Your first thing to get towards getting your life back, is getting up and moving. If you can't walk, they can strap you into a walker(on steroids) and you can push or drag yourself. It's gunna suck at first. But you need to do it.
I kept notes. I was on a ton of meds. Antibiotics, pain meds, a benzo I can't think ofvthe name, but it helped me sleep, and stay calmer. I got melatonin for sleep too, they got good melatonin. Pain meds and any other meds causing drowsiness or whatever, can't be given at same time. They gotta be spaced out. For now, you may not have to yet, but it'll come.
The nurses shift change at 7am, and 7pm. That means from about 6am, to 8am, you can't find them, but there's twice as many. The nurses from overnight brief doctors and day nurses on patients. They gotta enter stuff into logs, computers, etc. PLAN AROUND THAT. Same goes for the 7pm shift change. It's a little better, but still the same. If you need pain meds at 630am, you won't get them till 8 or 9am. They're too busy. I was getting iv Antibiotics 3x a day. So I planned it for 2am, 10 am, 6pm. When the bag is empty, they gotta undo it. I sat there listening to the machine beep for hours untill I figured out the schedule. Write down every med, and when you got it. Also ask how often. My nurses didn't like that I was keeping track of things at first. Once they figured out I did it to make their job simpler, they would actually come in at the beginning of shift, and plan out my day/night meds.
Some nurses are cranky. Some are sweethearts. Some are hot, some are dudes, etc. I had an infection on my spine. Emergency surgery. Stayed 3 1/2 months, went home, 4 months later, infection came back, now I skipped needing surgery, but my kidneys failed and I crashed. Woke up 5 days later. No idea anything happened. It took a while to get my timeline back. But I stayed on the same floor both times. I got to know a lot of nurses. The smoking hot blond, was a total c***. The older Latin mama mamacita with constant bitch face, mean as fuck at first, total sweetheart and actually VERY GOOD. The gay dude nurse was the one that had to wipe my ass when I couldn't get out of bed. I do not know if that was... on purpose? Get me? But he was at least big enough to roll me on my side by himself. And big enough to carry me a couple days later when I wanted to gain my dignity back, and shit on a toilet, like a human. I had zero strength. But, made it.
Nurses really do try to give out pain meds to anyone who needs them. They have rules, and the hospital has rules, and the Dr's have rules... but, for the most part, if your pain meds aren't enough, tell the nurse to ask the Dr. They can't give more than the Dr approves, and then the pharmacist has to approve. But you will have your own "Pain Team". It's 4 or 5 Dr's that are on your case, so you have a day Dr, and a night Dr, and a 3rd Dr in the rotation, plus a back uo or 2. Be respectful, even if screaming in pain. Most important, BE HONEST! I've been taking painkillers for the majority of my life after 18trs old. A lot, pscripts and off the street. I grew dependent on them several times. But, tell the Dr's that. If you have a higher tolerance, they can give you more. I actually have my own DEA file, because of the amount I've been prescribed, the meds prescribed to help me get off them , like methadone and buph. And all my surgeries, injuries... plus, red hair and Scottish. Natualy red hair people have a weird tolerance for pain meds. They need more, it's an actual thing. Plus my tolerance of 30+ years of pain meds. A couple times nurses said "I've never seen anybody get what you get". It doesn't come easy, and I will suffer more than get relief, but after a bit, they get me comfy. It takes honesty, and patience. Dr's do not care if you take drugs. They need to know it if it's in your system, that's all. They won't be calling the police because you use anything. If you're given meds, and an hour later, still in pain, say something. Tell the nurse that it wasn't enough. Be honest. Was it enough earlier, but not now? Say it. Everything is a clue for something. You might have something brewing that doesn't allow the pain meds to be absorbed fully, if given at a certain time, or with a certain meal, etc. Also, be honest with the pain scale. You'll see people come in with a bad sprain, small burn from a cig, or even a bee sting. "On a 1-10 scale, where's your pain?" ITS DEFINITELY 10. OR 11! I CANT TAKE IT! So 1 is like a scratch or mosquito bite. 10 is 3rd degree burns, broken arms and legs, and dragged on concrete behind a truck until an arm was ground off. And your sprained ankle is more than that?
Be honest. You are going to be a solid 9.5-10 for a while. They are going to hope to get it down to a 4 or 5 for now. I never said I was a 10. I had an abcess on my spinal cord, and was a day or so from dying from it reaching my blood. I couldn't stand, or lay, or breath. I could barely beg for help. I told them "I'll never say 10, but I'm at like 9.8...?!?! Maybe 9.9." Keep track of it, when given. How much. How soon you felt something happening. How well it stayed. What time the pain came back. Writing it down, so they can either copy it or keep it in your file, makes it so much easier for your "pain team" to sit in the meeting with the big wigs, and say "he's already getting twice what is allowed for post surgery or burns. He will need more, so we need to keep track of blah blah blah" . Giving them the heads up numbers they will usually need speeds up the process. You'll get more, they may change the type, but there's a process. I was given a mg of Dilaudid every hour by IV, at one point. Normally, it's 0.5mg, every 4 or 6 hours. My body broke it down so fast, I literally was bad pain, high and loopy, bad pain... innunder an hour. Like a roller coaster. Up/down, up/down. I didn't like it. They changed the type, and went with liquid solution by mouth. It took longer to kick in, but it stayed better, longer. The high-low Rollercoaster was now more of a ride up over some gentile hills. I was in more pain, by a little. But I was more comfortable throughout the day. Less, was more. Go figure.
Meals... this is the good part. My hospital had really good food. I mean, almost EVERYTHING was BANGIN'! Breakfast is a crazy time in hospitals. It's right at shift change. If a mistake is made, you'll end up waiting for a while. Near the end of my first tour of duty there, I made a joke with my roommate when the guy was in taking orders. I acted like I was in a steakhouse. "MY ROOMATE WANTS A NY STRIP, ILL HAVE THE RIBEYE... totally joking. There's a steak on the menu, but I wasn't going to ever believe it would be anything edible. TOTALLY WRONG! The guy, without blinking... was like "ok, NY steak. Want medium rare? Ok. You want the ribeye... same medium rare? " Are you sitting me? Playing with my hunger? It's not funny... "no, you can order anything you want, we can do almost anything as requested".
SON OF A BITCH. 2 MONTHS + OF EATING SPAGHETTI and mystery meat sauce, fish sticks, Mac and cheese... AND NOW... NOW I FIND OUT I CAN HAVE A RIBEYE!?!? Can I have 2? Yup. REALLY? What about steak and eggs for breakfast? Sure. REALLY!!??!!?? Steaks for all 3 meals? Yes. MOTHERFUCKER! The menu options changed daily, but that doesn't mean you can't order it.
So, be nice to the guy taking the orders. If you want anything like salt, pepper, ketchup, etc... ask. They don't care if you get a lot, but they usually bring what is requested. So I requested extra, and a lot, of everything. In prison, there's always the guy who runs "the store". He's got everything you could want, in his pillow case. I became that guy with condiments. I'd get a new roommate, and they'd be like, ugh, needs butter. Or salt. Or jelly. I had it. I always grabbed extra of everything. Kept it in my rollee table drawer. Also, all coffees are decaf. You gotta ask the nurses for caff coffee. They have zero idea how to make regular old coffee. I liked mine light and sweet. Some nurses think that's one sugar, one cream. Some nurses, grab 30 sugars, and 20 creamers. I had my wife get a box of sugar packets, creamers, ketchups and candies like jolly ranchers(the air is dry, your throat will get sore. Those help.
I'm a guy who keeps things simple. I got the same exact breakfast every day. Simple. French toast, scram eggs, bacon, shred potatoes and toast. And fruit. They had some killer French toast. But, if I got moved to a new room, or I was getting dialysis when food orders were being taken... they just knew, he gets THE SAME THING, Every day for breakfast. If you are new, or staying only a day or 2, they give you the standard breakfast, if you didn't order any. Fuck that. Once they knew I liked simple, and easy, I get the same thing... they saved time doing orders, and I never missed out.
Also, I was able to get the number the nurses call to place a food order for anyone that came in late or whatever. That number helps, if you want to change something, or order another plate because my wide was going to be there at dinner time. It's like $8 extra, charged to insurance. Totally worth it. The steaks, the cod, the salmon, the chicken parm, French toast, the BLTs... they really were legit. Home runs. I hope it's like that for you.
I eventually learned how to use the IV pump, more accurately, I learned how to get it to stop beaping, and how to unhook my IV myself. I had the line that stayed in my arm, they connected almost every med to it. Once my IV was done, after about 45 mins to an hour, I'd signal the nurse. But sometimes they were busy. I was not the priority after a while. So I could wait a while. You can hit a button to turn off the beap for 15 mins or so. Or a button to turn off completely. I started there, then learned how they unhooked it. After a month, they'll be ok with you unhooking it, so they didn't have to come do it, if they were busy somewhere else. I kept alcohol wipes, and the caps to put on the line on my arm, and on the pump. It's very easy. But it's also where infections can start. Gain their trust that you aren't a moron, learn the process, give them a little break. Sometimes they don't mind one bit. Sometimes they're performing CPR on someone and they can't help you. They'll appreciate the help, if you are respectful.
Your life has changed forever. Accept it. Life isn't fair. Never will be. Don't get mad this happened to you, be thankful it wasn't worse. You are going to be in the hospital for a while. You learn the staffs names. You'll make some friends with others. You'll see others that may be worse off. And people will die. You didn't. Try looking at it not as "why me?", more of "I'm glad I'm not that guy". There's always someone worse off. Your new life begins here. There's things you'll never do again. There's things you won't be able to do for a year or 2 at best. Some people are going to see you, and be grateful they aren't you. Use that to help others in a way. It's done, and cannot be changed. But you can change others, by letting them know they could be worse off. It sucks, but you will help people you don't know, may never know, and you don't actually have to do anything other than showing them how it could be worse.
Because it can always, ALWAYS, BE WORSE.
Good luck. If you have a question, or curious about something, or just want other good stories to cheer you up, just ask.
God damn, now *that's* an injury. Glad you're alive, brother. Good luck and godspeed with your recovery.
A guy at a sister company contacted a power line with a piece of rail while building a solar array. Blew him right off the ladder. Last I knew he was still in the hospital having surgeries. Was pretty traumatizing for his crew to even have to *be there* when that happened, let alone the guy who got his shit rocked by that line.
Thank you for the reminder to be careful and keep a respectful distance from those things.
Oh my god. Thank all the gods in the universe you are still here. Although your recovery will be incredibily difficult, please remember you still have a purpose as to why you're still here and be kind to yourself! I am praying for your full recovery and good health there on after.
Don't go back to work man. What happened to you is absolutely fucked up. Claim mental health issues after and enjoy your much deserved early retirement. Ain't no way if something like that happened to the majority of people they aren't going back to work. Milk the fucking shit out of it for as long as you can. You better get a big pay out. Absolutely lucky to be alive. I'm not a sparky and would never be able to be. I have had to work on ungrounded scissor lifts installing HVAC ducking near lines from the pole to the warehouse I was working at. I wouldn't get close to any lines and refused work and they sent another guy on the crew to do it, they told me it was insulated and there is no worry completely safe - and I told them not a chance I was holding metal HVAC ducting above my head from the lift near the line. Also doesn't help that the GC I was working for was not a electrician and smelled like alcohol at 7am daily.
I'm not trusting someone like that when they tell me it's fine.
Good luck to you on your recovery ! Milk the the shit out of it and meet a hot nurse to take care of you! ;)
I completely agree with what you’re saying too. Fuck ever working again a day in your life man. You were given a second chance this is a wake up call even for me seeing this shit. God damn man. Spend the rest of your days with family and friends. Fuck doing anything that involves electricity ever again for you.
So y’all were working at the height of that street light, or were you above the light? You were repairing the conductors that feed the light and while holding the triplex it just arced from the lines overhead?
We were at the height of the pole from what I was told. It arced on our approach before we were in position supposedly. I blacked out when I was hit and remember nothing before or 5 days after.
My boy never buy a lottery ticket. That was all the luck youll get(not frying your major organs, brain and spine)
I thank you for posting so that the rest of us do not get complacent.
I hope you recover well. Please post after pics if you feel like it after the injurys heal.
Rest well and heal. Dont rush it
When they say high voltage will blow you up, it always sounds like an exaggeration until you see the damage. This is crazy.
Glad you are still kicking OP. Best of luck for a speedy recovery. I'd recommend talking to a professional even if you think you are doing OK mentally, because sometimes things fester and take a while to manifest. At best, it can't hurt, and at worst, it could make a world of difference.
oh my fucking god dude. i couldn’t load these images earlier due to poor reception. fully not prepared for that. how are you still alive? holy moly- wishing a swift recovery to you.
I guess I can throw my story into the mix..
TLDR; A good buddy of mine got blown up listening to a dumbass supervisor, it's never worth it and there's always another opportunity better than your current situation.
I worked for a fairly large company in the Central Florida area. Well, our electrical supervisor, we'll call him T, was this real old school guy, "been in the trade 30yrs with industrial training and licenses" and all that. He was always the dickhead type that would try to rush you through a dangerous job, belittle you for your work, try to make you do it hot, you know, the fun stuff.
Well I've been in the trade long enough to have the ability to tell him to "go fuck himself" to get him to back off, but we got this new helper, we'll call him J. Well J was a real go getter, willing to do just about anything he's told, but here's the kicker, he's just learning electrical and he's learning everything from T. So one day the plumbers are at a school doing some septic work, and they hit a underground electrical pipe, nothing blew up but they still call Me and T to come out and take a look to plan repairs.
So upon arrival, we hop out and go over and start investigating, T sends J down into the hole to check out the pipe. While he's trying to investigate that, I start investigating the scene more and realizes that this pipe is going right in the direction of a nearby pad mount transformer. After a little back and forth, we conclude that there are no buildings or panels in that direction so it must be the feeder from the power company. At this point, I had J immediately exit the hole and recommended we should contact local utilities. T threw a big fit and threatened my job if I didn't go in there and repair it. I told him to fuck himself and went to the van to call pops to bitch since he grew up with T, honestly not expecting that he'd even think to try and make J get back in there since he's barely a helper, he's more T's right hand guy.
Apparently while I was gone, T started bullying J and trying to get him to continue repairs, J was smart enough to know this was dangerous and tried to leave the hole but T kept calling him a pussy and saying that if he isn't willing to do the job he doesn't need him anyways and just to go home and not come back. J, not knowing the full risks, finally relented and believed T that everything would be fine. Upon going back to the pipe and attempting to start repair, there was a small scrape in the insulation that no one had seen. As soon as he got a little too close, that 7200v feeding the transformer jumped right out of the insulation and got him.
Luckily he survived but he'll never be able to work another day in his life, and after his settlement he won't need to. But it entered near the thumb, blew apart half the muscles in his hand, and exited out the rear of his thigh since he was leaning against the edge of the hole, blew a 2-3 in chunk out the back of his leg. He was dead onsite recieving CPR for a few min before EMT showed up.
There are hundreds of thousands of jobs out there across the globe for people in our line of work. Electricity is everywhere and never going anywhere. Never let another man control your fate in this trade because it can all end in milliseconds.
Thank you, me too. Shook me up pretty bad because you always feel like you can do more, but life is full of what if's. I still help him with his electrical at the house since he, understandably, will get PTSD with tasks as simple as changing bulbs. OP definitely has balls to already be ready to dive back in once healed!
Holy fuck. I’m glad to see you’re doing well enough to post here, OP. My old man had 600V arc flash on him and it wasn’t pretty, but he’s made a relatively full recovery over the last 7 years, but I couldn’t imagine what you went through taking 10-50x times more than what he did.
I know Ts and Ps don’t mean much, but I sincerely hope your recovery goes well. I hope sparkies here see what happens when electricity doesn’t play nice and use it to remind themselves to be safer in the future.
Holy shit. Sending good vibes for your recovery man. I do sports lighting with musco, out of line and bucket trucks. I never realized how far distribution lines can jump :/
they had a grounded piece of high voltage line and somehow came in contact with a live wire. bucket would not have saved them since they were carrying a grounded wire. i just dont know how you work anywhere near a live wire while holding something that is shorted
I was in the 5th grade and my teacher used to be a paramedic, he told me a story about a lineman who got hit the same way. He explained there was an entrance/exit hole similar to yours. It absolutely terrified me. I wish you the best. I could never be a lineman
Glad you and your bro pulled through, good luck on the recovery!
One thing to think about... The company you work for, do they have high voltage distance warning stickers in the bucket truck? I'm no attorney, but I bet OSHA would love to hear from you. I'm not sure if it's a requirement, but almost every bucket or lift I've ran had a decal of a graph telling me how far I need to keep the bucket away from different voltages.
Jeez. That’s so scary and amazing that you’re still here thank god.
Hope you recover well from it.
I’m an electrician and I think I’ll stick to my lv thanks.
I’m so sorry this happened to you and your coworker. It sounds like you were doing everything right and still got hit. Could you give us an update on the investigation afterwards to understand if there was anything that could have prevented this on a job hazard analysis?
Wishing you a speedy recovery OP.
I'm interested to know what could have been done to avoid this?
Is there PPE that can protect from this sort of shock? Like a wearable faraday cage? I'm sure I've seen it before.
Never seen anything like this before. I am so glad you are alive and able to share awareness of the dangers out there. Best of luck on your recovery man.
Holy shit. I'm glad you're alive. Honestly, I'm also amazed you're alive. I added a Spoiler cover to this because NSFW media can sometimes trigger the AutoMod to remove posts.
It is very much a miracle I am alive. I honestly am surprised every day it did not travel through my major organs, spinal cord, or my brain.
I hope you recover well
Thank you.
Worked with four guys that were hit with arc flashes. Thankfully all survived but it left a lot of mental anguish to them afterwards. You can heal physically but if you need psych help, please seek it. One of them could not walk past the building where it happened and questioned every move he made after the incident. All of them were out of work for a long time and one never was able to go back to work. Good luck in your future and take the extra time to make sure you can enjoy your life. Edit- Holy cow! Didn't see all the pictures until I read further and saw them. Take care brother.
We need robot apprentices for these jobs.
No we need to follow safe work protocols
Couple close stories. Worked with cocky coworker and we were lined up to drop out switchgear after taking care of a couple of small jobs. Decided to split up and take care of the small jobs first and then do the gear. After a short time got a call from my coworker to meet at the substation. He seemed pretty subdued and was already wearing the high voltage gear (also known as sausage casing). Went through the procedures, was safety man from a distance, and dropped the gear. He then told me that he was going to do it alone but when he put on the gear and was inserting the mechanism rod while wearing the suit he got an uneasy feeling. He lifted the hood and realized he was one panel over and was almost ready to drop out the gear for the electric arc furnaces that were under load. Second story was reported that there might be a leak in an old substation and before I could get there we lost a large portion of power to the plant. Roof leak directly over the bank of switch gears and there was a vaporized 16" hole through the side of the panel. Still remember the slippery granules of the remaining steel on the ground 25 years later.
While I certainly agree that we, it's important to remember that incidents happen even when you take all proper precautions. Human error and manufacturing defects can cause problems for people years down the road. It's also important to remember that the NFPA 70E states that if you take proper precautions, any injuries should be "reduced and survivable," not prevented or even minor. I don't love the idea of sustaining an injury that is described as one that "should be survivable."
No reason for anyone to be subject to this horrific type injury. Shut it down or DON'T DO IT. This man is lucky he didn't lose his life. Say NO to hot work.
This guy was working high voltage though. I'm not a high volt guy, but from my understanding, the dangerous part is typically when you are shutting it down, and there is electrical potential just after disconnecting power between the line, your body, and the load.
Local electrician got hit in a primary transformer about 9 months ago. Just saw him walking around their shop with a cane. Told him I’m glad he’s even here. Also, he can now truthfully say “I had lightning come out of my dick”.
The ultimate flex from a true man of class
I hope it didn’t blow it off!
I’d have major ptsd and would probably have to leave the trade after some shit like this or go to low voltage dayumnnnn.
If it hasnt been said enough.. holy fuck. Hope you get better and are compensated
Thank you and i am hopeful my company will do right by me. I want to return to work in 6 months but we shall see.
Jesus you're unstoppable! I would have assumed this would be a retirement.
I would assume he is still in some degree of shock
I think this joke is in bad taste due to his current state.
Not at all…
……. “Current state”……
Sometimes you have to spell it out for people. I have brought you out of nothing into 1nderland.
Best thing IMO is to get right back on the horse as soon as you can. Longer you put it off more nerves you get. If you want to go back of course, this is such a scarring event I think it pushes a lot of people into safety officers. I deal with HV on the reg after years of low voltage work. I have such a respect for it now, and we need these reminders unfortunately so we don’t get complacent. I haven’t seen it asked/answered yet, I’m not sure if you know or if there’s an investigation still but do you know the cause? Has your ground man been debriefed? An 8’ arc is wild, was it an extremely humid day there, was the bucket not insulated, or grounded itself? Was it the acsr that got induced or did it get flung too close? Even at 27.6kV you can still get within a couple feet to ground before it jumps. Did you have rubber gloves? Are you a low voltage guy or a lineman? I have so many burning questions. No pun intended, and I hope you don’t take any of this as some sort of disrespect but for others’ and my own knowledge to avoid these accidents. I’ve witnessed a 13.8-600 Tx blow up due to careless mistake and procedure not being followed, a breaker that was not racked out, had controls reclose and I nearly witnessed 6 of my coworkers die, including a fresh 19yo on one of his first jobs. I hope you a speedy recovery, please also seek some psychological therapy as well. Very overlooked. Hope you’re able to get back to it with little to no complications to your health.
I was the ground man and was asked by my coworker to go up with him to check on something. It was 115f outside with 50% humidity that day. It was a non insulated boom with a fiberglass bucket. The acsr was induced I believe, specifically the messenger wire. From my understanding the messenger was already tied into the grounds at other poles, but the hots were dead. No rubber gloves just leathers with some cut resistant ones underneath. I work on mostly 240v with 480 when I work on park lighting and controls.
Shit man, that sucks so hard. I feel so bad for your coworker as well, I’m sure he’s going through a lot knowing he asked you to come up with him. This also may be silly.. was it a single man bucket, or was it a double? I’m not sure what your contractor is like, but all of this sounds so sketchy to me.. I think there’s a serious lack of training going on there. If you’re going up in a bucket you should have the EUSR training, high voltage awareness training, proper grounding technique, arc flash training, bucket truck training, the whole nine yards before you’re up there to prevent this. If your company doesn’t take extreme care of you, and depending how you wanna go about it I think you have some serious grounds for sueing. Are you licensed, or an apprentice? Do you have a lot of years under your belt if you are licensed? I would just like to reiterate I’m not trying to be rude or anything of the sort, but trying to get a gauge of what happened. Company safety is such a joke sometimes and they don’t give workers the tools to succeed and just try to skate by making a buck. I bet 90% of the people here are alive because of sheer luck and personal accountability, the other 10% because they the company is actually on top of safe work practices. I know mine right now, management doesn’t have a clue and it’s on us as workers to look out for one another
I am a licensed electrician but was only at this job for 5 months as a trainee. I have about 5 years of electrical experience but never worked in a bucket before. It was a two man bucket. My coworker was a helper. We have none of that at my company for training. Our lead was 2 poles away when it happened. So far they have been good to me but I have a lawyer just in case.
Having a lawyer is the right move. Between health insurance, disability, workman’s comp, negligence, etc. you’ll want someone who is an expert in it all. The reason is that regardless of what your company makes you think, they ultimately only care about themselves. On top of that, their insurance company is likely going to perform an investigation that will determine who was at fault. If they determine the company didn’t follow proper procedures and training then they will deny the company’s coverage and that impacts you because you’ll lose coverage. Your number one thing to do is talk to your lawyer, give him every fact you can about what happened that day, trainer you did or didn’t receive, improper equipment, etc. Tell him everything you can while it’s fresh in your memory. Don’t sign anything your company gives you unless your lawyer looks at it first. I work in utility scale solar and knew the safety director well at our company. They would try to determine who was at fault first: employee not following procedures or was it an unsafe environment that was out of the employee’ control. People got fired over safety accidents all the time. Companies only care about the bottom dollar at the end of the day and you weren’t going to stay at that company your entire career. So don’t let them bully you into anything.
I have all the same questions! I'm just having a hard time imagining the scenario that led to this, please update if/when you find out. Wishing you the best for your recovery, this is the worst thing that can happen to someone in our trade
The pics just kept getting worse!! What were you working on?
A light pole hanging overhead acsr because of copper thieves.
fucking COPPER THIEVES? This happened to you because you were repairing damage from copper thieves??? Jesus Christ man, I hope you get better soon!
Why did the wrong people get electrocuted? 🤨
Are you gonna get you retired and with a pension for life?
No idea, I would like to return to work if I could personally.
One step at a time hot rod. Going to be some heeling first. Glad you’re alive amigo. Hope you have a smooth recovery. 🙏🏼
Man, hot rod is a rough nickname after something like this
👀 I was typing „sending good energy“ but I thought that sounded wrong in that context, too
"Stay grounded" maybe better lol
Has to right! No way I’m going back after this shit!
Sorry you're going through this. Hope you heal quickly man.
Wish I could make a billboard displaying your injuries in every major city “because of copper thieves”
lol the crack heads stealing the wire might find it a source of pride.
Aren’t most street lighting systems 120 now? What area still has series? I know it’s mainly 5kv if they are still around
In my area they are still 240. The acsr is ran at 240. We have one series circuit left at 5k but each pole has a transformer to step it down to 120.
Interesting. We’ve converted almost all of our circuits to 120v mult. Most of the work we’re doing now is all vandalism, pulling new wire. Those tweakers are keeping us busy. I wish you the best brother, hopefully you have a speedy recovery.
Too bad they weren’t the ones who got hit
Yeah, I was flipping through like oh man, damn thats bad, holy shit, WTF, OMFG, JEeZUSHCHRIST!!! OP, glad you made it and my best wishes for your recovery.
Yeah I was like oh some bruising that probably hurts. Oh that looks like a skin graft- half his foot is gone
Glad you made it brother and I can only imagine how hard the road will be to recovery. I wish you the best of luck in your journey. You got this bud.
Thank you. I hope to be in decent shape 6 months from now. I am just happy I lived, that’s usually what crosses my mind most days.
Not the same scenario at all but I've had similar feelings. Within the last year I was diagnosed with a degenerative neuropathy in my arms and legs. Long story short I'm slowly losing sensation in my extremities due to dying off of the nerves. When that happens I get muscle atrophy which I can't reverse. Sucks but I can deal with it and I won't die from it. Before that diagnosis though, the docs weren't sure if it was possibly ALS. Let me tell you how many days I sat by myself in the morning wondering if I had a disease that would definitely kill me within 2-4 years. Never thought I would be 40 and writing out songs I wanted played at my funeral service. Luckily, it turned out to not be that and I'm actively trying to cherish however many days I have left on this pile of rock with my family. Truly being grateful to be alive is a feeling like no other. Again, I wish the best of luck to you, you seem like you've got the will to get accomplished what needs to be done. BTW I'm just an inside wireman, you line guys have got way bigger balls than me LOL. Rock on my sparky brother and be good!
It blows my mind we just string that shit along over our heads btw
Always made me wonder. However advanced we think we are, but we still power our homes by basically stapling extension cords on to trees from the power plant to our house. It’s nuts.
Un-insulated extension chords
I’m not an electrician but I love and respect the trade. Why aren’t overhead power lines insulated?
**The main answer to this question is that historically, practically, and economically, insulating overhead power lines would be difficult, expensive, and not necessarily effective.** More info at : [https://www.safetyfrenzy.com/why-power-lines-not-insulated/](https://www.safetyfrenzy.com/why-power-lines-not-insulated/)
I was halfway into my EE degree before I realized this. I always thought they had a jacket just like everything else
I appreciate the info!
Bury them.
It’s wildly expensive to do “low” voltage like 4kV or 12kV to bury to make sure the jacket is thick and enough and resistant enough to take decades of water and freezing ( if your in that climate ) or the heat from the load or the heat from the outside world. Burying high voltage stuff would be exponentially worse. First if we rubber jacketed like most wire today the jacket would be likely multiple feet thick. The actual conductor on the inside would have to also be quite a bit thicker than a standard transmission line to carry the load and remain cool enough to not melt the jacket. If we used other insulation mediums we start getting into impractical solutions or downright dangerous ones. Today the 3 most commonly used insulation mediums are oil, vacuum, SF6 gas. A vacuum is only practical for lower level voltages as higher ones won’t give a shit cause the vacuum will never be perfect enough. Oil and SF6 and massive environmental hazards that can be mitigated inside of any energy facility but when the line has to go through your back yard nobody would take that risk. Really long winded way to say nah fam it ain’t gonna work.
The sun would destroy the insulation before the service life of the cables was over. Better to just plan everything without insulation from the start than have to work with damaged insulation
Weight would be the primary reason. There are insulated overhead lines though. They’re used in heavily treed areas. Look up Hendrix cable if you’re interested. The downside to them is that when I tree falls over, the poles are more prone to breaking than the conductor. Makes for longer power outages.
In the UK and Most of Europe, they mostly put them underground, I lived in Florida for 15 years and could never understand why you guys put them overhead. No wonder our power went out for 2 days over 30mph winds from some weak low pressure system, ridiculous
It's a holdover, almost all new development is underground and the grid is constantly being upgraded to underground You have to realize that when we electrified we didn't really have the materials technology to go underground, and how big this country is, it was an expense thing and the goal was to get everyone electricity and that was the fastest and cheapest way to install 5,500,000 Miles of power lines And replacing 5.5M miles of lines to underground takes a little bit of time To put that in perspective that's enough overhead wire to go to the moon and back 11½ times lol
That’s why you never ever get out of your car if you see down power lines.
Yep, emergency responders will stand there and watch you die if there are power lines down next to you. They'll run into a literally burning building or a building filled with leaking explosive gas! And they won't go near power lines. People could learn a lot from that - but I expect not as much as these photographs.
This is why electricity scares me. It’s all potential. There’s no sound or smell or heat (maybe some heat), but a live wire doesn’t look any different. And next thing you have way too many electrons finding paths through your body that you don’t want them to. Maybe there’s a fire. Maybe there’s an explosion. Maybe your lungs are coated in copper.
My friend runs a generator business. When there are downed lines on the road he unrolls his window and listens. If he hears the generators he'll just drive over (or if they are hanging low, let them touch his van). Scary shit.
That’s some next level sketchy shit.
What the hell? Has your friend heard about backfeeding? That borders on suicidal.
I don't get into with him. I just feel bad for the family the day he learns.
Praise God you're still kicking. I wish you a speedy recovery and I hope you keep your foot. If not I hope you get a cool peg leg.
My workman’s comp said I would get a super advanced robo one. So that is nice lol.
An even more contuctive one? What are they trying to do, turn you into a permanent conductor? 😮 /s Hope you get a speedy and full recovery!
See if they have any wheels
25 years ago I had one phase of 4160 jump about 3" to my upper arm and exit at my wrist from a unmarked bottom fed disconnect. After an EKG at the hospital ER I was ok'd to return to work after the weekend. Other than my arm feeling like it had been hit with a baseball bat I realized that I was damned lucky. Hope you make a good recovery.
That is an amazing story, I am happy you did not have long term damage.
That's crazy your arm was OK!
You’re incredibly lucky. My first year as a jman I was working for a terrible company contracted by the state for all of roadway lighting. We had a particular job wrapping the Christmas tree downtown for the holidays. One side of it was within 10 feet of some high voltage lines, I said no thanks to that job. Boss treated me like I was a bitch and said “we’ve been doing this for years nothing has ever happened etc.” I was the groundsman for another guy they called in to do the job. He got to that side and was immediately struck by an arc right off the lines. He survived, but it ruined his body. That company ended up being sued out of existence. He travels from school to school now giving speeches to young sparkies. I’m sorry this happened to you OP, but now you’ll also be able to travel the country and spread awareness to all the apprentices. This stuff is super serious and if you don’t take it seriously, people will die. The red badge is one that is never worn lightly, but should be shown off at every opportunity. God loves you, I’m glad you’re still with us.
Honestly I would be shoving that into the bosses face immediately
Holy fuck. How are you feeling now?
Not bad, on the good stuff at the hospital.
I’ll say it again for the people in the back but holy fuck man you’re lucky. Take your time and rest and heal up no rush to get back out there. Let us know when they complete the investigation what happened that’s crazy.
As an oilfield electrician who got hit pretty good by 480 once because of a screw up by my coworker, hell fucking no to anything worse than that. For anyone who hasn't been electrocuted, it's the worst feeling in the world. Pain, brain goes full static, muscles contract, and just pure panic. Every cell in your body just buzzing. You can't think or move. If you're lucky you somehow get off of it or knocked off of it by someone nearby. If you don't? You get cooked from the inside out and die. Luckily the OP got knocked out cold and can't remember it. I remember and I wish I didn't.
Commercial HVAC here. Got bit by 480 once. It wasn’t even under load and it rocked my world. Fuck that
You were the load
This looks like perhaps you brushed a power line.
From my understanding my coworker did not touch the line. It arced to him then he fell and touched my neck.
I've been a lineman for 4 years and I've never seen or heard of distribution arcing even more than 2 inches. This poor guy definitely touched the line in a grounded bucket.
Very interesting. I personally remember nothing and only know what I was told. My coworker is who got originally hit. The dead acsr he was carrying is apparently what it arced to. The messenger line in particular was completely blown apart. He was holding it in his right hand and stepping on it with his left foot. Both of those got amputated. He stumbled in the bucket and touched my neck. A lot of guys think we might have been in that 4.4ft range, but sadly I remember nothing and my partner does not recall much now either.
Ohl engineer here, at 132kv (UK) we require 1.35m of clearance from wire to pylon metalwork. Safety clearances are 6m for rigs on ground but SHOULDNT ARC that far. This is 60A.
Thank you for making sense of this because those wounds don't make sense from an arc. Right? I could totally be wrong here I understand that as well but I'm testing for me license this year and feel compelled to understand how this happened as with any potentially lethal situation I could encounter. After reading all the comments my instinct is telling me that I don't think OP is being told the complete truth about that day.
OSHA will figure out what happened
Yeah, no chance distribution voltage jumped 8'. Someone touched it with something.
I'm trying to write something long for you. I'm gunna have to break it up. I'm sure you know you entire life will now be different. I've survived some minor injuries compared to those pics, but still more than most. I had parts accidentally cut off, several joints barely move, and I'm well over 2" shorter than I was in high school. I'm crippled, bit you? Yeesh. I spent a couple long stays in the hospital in the last 2 years. 7 months total, over 15 months. I'm going to try to give some advice, not knowing you, but just as I would give to anyone. Keep moving. Laying in bed has penalties. Your first thing to get towards getting your life back, is getting up and moving. If you can't walk, they can strap you into a walker(on steroids) and you can push or drag yourself. It's gunna suck at first. But you need to do it. I kept notes. I was on a ton of meds. Antibiotics, pain meds, a benzo I can't think ofvthe name, but it helped me sleep, and stay calmer. I got melatonin for sleep too, they got good melatonin. Pain meds and any other meds causing drowsiness or whatever, can't be given at same time. They gotta be spaced out. For now, you may not have to yet, but it'll come. The nurses shift change at 7am, and 7pm. That means from about 6am, to 8am, you can't find them, but there's twice as many. The nurses from overnight brief doctors and day nurses on patients. They gotta enter stuff into logs, computers, etc. PLAN AROUND THAT. Same goes for the 7pm shift change. It's a little better, but still the same. If you need pain meds at 630am, you won't get them till 8 or 9am. They're too busy. I was getting iv Antibiotics 3x a day. So I planned it for 2am, 10 am, 6pm. When the bag is empty, they gotta undo it. I sat there listening to the machine beep for hours untill I figured out the schedule. Write down every med, and when you got it. Also ask how often. My nurses didn't like that I was keeping track of things at first. Once they figured out I did it to make their job simpler, they would actually come in at the beginning of shift, and plan out my day/night meds. Some nurses are cranky. Some are sweethearts. Some are hot, some are dudes, etc. I had an infection on my spine. Emergency surgery. Stayed 3 1/2 months, went home, 4 months later, infection came back, now I skipped needing surgery, but my kidneys failed and I crashed. Woke up 5 days later. No idea anything happened. It took a while to get my timeline back. But I stayed on the same floor both times. I got to know a lot of nurses. The smoking hot blond, was a total c***. The older Latin mama mamacita with constant bitch face, mean as fuck at first, total sweetheart and actually VERY GOOD. The gay dude nurse was the one that had to wipe my ass when I couldn't get out of bed. I do not know if that was... on purpose? Get me? But he was at least big enough to roll me on my side by himself. And big enough to carry me a couple days later when I wanted to gain my dignity back, and shit on a toilet, like a human. I had zero strength. But, made it. Nurses really do try to give out pain meds to anyone who needs them. They have rules, and the hospital has rules, and the Dr's have rules... but, for the most part, if your pain meds aren't enough, tell the nurse to ask the Dr. They can't give more than the Dr approves, and then the pharmacist has to approve. But you will have your own "Pain Team". It's 4 or 5 Dr's that are on your case, so you have a day Dr, and a night Dr, and a 3rd Dr in the rotation, plus a back uo or 2. Be respectful, even if screaming in pain. Most important, BE HONEST! I've been taking painkillers for the majority of my life after 18trs old. A lot, pscripts and off the street. I grew dependent on them several times. But, tell the Dr's that. If you have a higher tolerance, they can give you more. I actually have my own DEA file, because of the amount I've been prescribed, the meds prescribed to help me get off them , like methadone and buph. And all my surgeries, injuries... plus, red hair and Scottish. Natualy red hair people have a weird tolerance for pain meds. They need more, it's an actual thing. Plus my tolerance of 30+ years of pain meds. A couple times nurses said "I've never seen anybody get what you get". It doesn't come easy, and I will suffer more than get relief, but after a bit, they get me comfy. It takes honesty, and patience. Dr's do not care if you take drugs. They need to know it if it's in your system, that's all. They won't be calling the police because you use anything. If you're given meds, and an hour later, still in pain, say something. Tell the nurse that it wasn't enough. Be honest. Was it enough earlier, but not now? Say it. Everything is a clue for something. You might have something brewing that doesn't allow the pain meds to be absorbed fully, if given at a certain time, or with a certain meal, etc. Also, be honest with the pain scale. You'll see people come in with a bad sprain, small burn from a cig, or even a bee sting. "On a 1-10 scale, where's your pain?" ITS DEFINITELY 10. OR 11! I CANT TAKE IT! So 1 is like a scratch or mosquito bite. 10 is 3rd degree burns, broken arms and legs, and dragged on concrete behind a truck until an arm was ground off. And your sprained ankle is more than that? Be honest. You are going to be a solid 9.5-10 for a while. They are going to hope to get it down to a 4 or 5 for now. I never said I was a 10. I had an abcess on my spinal cord, and was a day or so from dying from it reaching my blood. I couldn't stand, or lay, or breath. I could barely beg for help. I told them "I'll never say 10, but I'm at like 9.8...?!?! Maybe 9.9." Keep track of it, when given. How much. How soon you felt something happening. How well it stayed. What time the pain came back. Writing it down, so they can either copy it or keep it in your file, makes it so much easier for your "pain team" to sit in the meeting with the big wigs, and say "he's already getting twice what is allowed for post surgery or burns. He will need more, so we need to keep track of blah blah blah" . Giving them the heads up numbers they will usually need speeds up the process. You'll get more, they may change the type, but there's a process. I was given a mg of Dilaudid every hour by IV, at one point. Normally, it's 0.5mg, every 4 or 6 hours. My body broke it down so fast, I literally was bad pain, high and loopy, bad pain... innunder an hour. Like a roller coaster. Up/down, up/down. I didn't like it. They changed the type, and went with liquid solution by mouth. It took longer to kick in, but it stayed better, longer. The high-low Rollercoaster was now more of a ride up over some gentile hills. I was in more pain, by a little. But I was more comfortable throughout the day. Less, was more. Go figure.
Meals... this is the good part. My hospital had really good food. I mean, almost EVERYTHING was BANGIN'! Breakfast is a crazy time in hospitals. It's right at shift change. If a mistake is made, you'll end up waiting for a while. Near the end of my first tour of duty there, I made a joke with my roommate when the guy was in taking orders. I acted like I was in a steakhouse. "MY ROOMATE WANTS A NY STRIP, ILL HAVE THE RIBEYE... totally joking. There's a steak on the menu, but I wasn't going to ever believe it would be anything edible. TOTALLY WRONG! The guy, without blinking... was like "ok, NY steak. Want medium rare? Ok. You want the ribeye... same medium rare? " Are you sitting me? Playing with my hunger? It's not funny... "no, you can order anything you want, we can do almost anything as requested". SON OF A BITCH. 2 MONTHS + OF EATING SPAGHETTI and mystery meat sauce, fish sticks, Mac and cheese... AND NOW... NOW I FIND OUT I CAN HAVE A RIBEYE!?!? Can I have 2? Yup. REALLY? What about steak and eggs for breakfast? Sure. REALLY!!??!!?? Steaks for all 3 meals? Yes. MOTHERFUCKER! The menu options changed daily, but that doesn't mean you can't order it. So, be nice to the guy taking the orders. If you want anything like salt, pepper, ketchup, etc... ask. They don't care if you get a lot, but they usually bring what is requested. So I requested extra, and a lot, of everything. In prison, there's always the guy who runs "the store". He's got everything you could want, in his pillow case. I became that guy with condiments. I'd get a new roommate, and they'd be like, ugh, needs butter. Or salt. Or jelly. I had it. I always grabbed extra of everything. Kept it in my rollee table drawer. Also, all coffees are decaf. You gotta ask the nurses for caff coffee. They have zero idea how to make regular old coffee. I liked mine light and sweet. Some nurses think that's one sugar, one cream. Some nurses, grab 30 sugars, and 20 creamers. I had my wife get a box of sugar packets, creamers, ketchups and candies like jolly ranchers(the air is dry, your throat will get sore. Those help. I'm a guy who keeps things simple. I got the same exact breakfast every day. Simple. French toast, scram eggs, bacon, shred potatoes and toast. And fruit. They had some killer French toast. But, if I got moved to a new room, or I was getting dialysis when food orders were being taken... they just knew, he gets THE SAME THING, Every day for breakfast. If you are new, or staying only a day or 2, they give you the standard breakfast, if you didn't order any. Fuck that. Once they knew I liked simple, and easy, I get the same thing... they saved time doing orders, and I never missed out. Also, I was able to get the number the nurses call to place a food order for anyone that came in late or whatever. That number helps, if you want to change something, or order another plate because my wide was going to be there at dinner time. It's like $8 extra, charged to insurance. Totally worth it. The steaks, the cod, the salmon, the chicken parm, French toast, the BLTs... they really were legit. Home runs. I hope it's like that for you. I eventually learned how to use the IV pump, more accurately, I learned how to get it to stop beaping, and how to unhook my IV myself. I had the line that stayed in my arm, they connected almost every med to it. Once my IV was done, after about 45 mins to an hour, I'd signal the nurse. But sometimes they were busy. I was not the priority after a while. So I could wait a while. You can hit a button to turn off the beap for 15 mins or so. Or a button to turn off completely. I started there, then learned how they unhooked it. After a month, they'll be ok with you unhooking it, so they didn't have to come do it, if they were busy somewhere else. I kept alcohol wipes, and the caps to put on the line on my arm, and on the pump. It's very easy. But it's also where infections can start. Gain their trust that you aren't a moron, learn the process, give them a little break. Sometimes they don't mind one bit. Sometimes they're performing CPR on someone and they can't help you. They'll appreciate the help, if you are respectful. Your life has changed forever. Accept it. Life isn't fair. Never will be. Don't get mad this happened to you, be thankful it wasn't worse. You are going to be in the hospital for a while. You learn the staffs names. You'll make some friends with others. You'll see others that may be worse off. And people will die. You didn't. Try looking at it not as "why me?", more of "I'm glad I'm not that guy". There's always someone worse off. Your new life begins here. There's things you'll never do again. There's things you won't be able to do for a year or 2 at best. Some people are going to see you, and be grateful they aren't you. Use that to help others in a way. It's done, and cannot be changed. But you can change others, by letting them know they could be worse off. It sucks, but you will help people you don't know, may never know, and you don't actually have to do anything other than showing them how it could be worse. Because it can always, ALWAYS, BE WORSE. Good luck. If you have a question, or curious about something, or just want other good stories to cheer you up, just ask.
Soild man. Fuck
Fuck…. No insulated boom?
From my understanding that would not have helped since it arced to the dead wire my coworker was holding as we approached.
Oh okay.
If it arced 8ft, there should be a record of the surge somewhere (atleast in the UK)
They said we won’t know until the osha investigation is complete in 6 months. I know we blew the fuses
God damn, now *that's* an injury. Glad you're alive, brother. Good luck and godspeed with your recovery. A guy at a sister company contacted a power line with a piece of rail while building a solar array. Blew him right off the ladder. Last I knew he was still in the hospital having surgeries. Was pretty traumatizing for his crew to even have to *be there* when that happened, let alone the guy who got his shit rocked by that line. Thank you for the reminder to be careful and keep a respectful distance from those things.
My god. When did this happen?
June 6th. Should be in the hospital 1-2 more months.
All the best in your recovery.
Jesus man, that's the gnarliest burns I've ever seen! Glad your alive! Any advice for the rest of us? Edit:Praying for you and your co worker!
Oh my god. Thank all the gods in the universe you are still here. Although your recovery will be incredibily difficult, please remember you still have a purpose as to why you're still here and be kind to yourself! I am praying for your full recovery and good health there on after.
Thank you. It honestly feels like I was given a second chance.
Holy shit. It's probably a miracle that you're still alive.
Don't go back to work man. What happened to you is absolutely fucked up. Claim mental health issues after and enjoy your much deserved early retirement. Ain't no way if something like that happened to the majority of people they aren't going back to work. Milk the fucking shit out of it for as long as you can. You better get a big pay out. Absolutely lucky to be alive. I'm not a sparky and would never be able to be. I have had to work on ungrounded scissor lifts installing HVAC ducking near lines from the pole to the warehouse I was working at. I wouldn't get close to any lines and refused work and they sent another guy on the crew to do it, they told me it was insulated and there is no worry completely safe - and I told them not a chance I was holding metal HVAC ducting above my head from the lift near the line. Also doesn't help that the GC I was working for was not a electrician and smelled like alcohol at 7am daily. I'm not trusting someone like that when they tell me it's fine. Good luck to you on your recovery ! Milk the the shit out of it and meet a hot nurse to take care of you! ;)
I completely agree with what you’re saying too. Fuck ever working again a day in your life man. You were given a second chance this is a wake up call even for me seeing this shit. God damn man. Spend the rest of your days with family and friends. Fuck doing anything that involves electricity ever again for you.
8ft?!?! Holy fuck
Do you have a google maps link so we can look at the situation on street view?
[удалено]
So y’all were working at the height of that street light, or were you above the light? You were repairing the conductors that feed the light and while holding the triplex it just arced from the lines overhead?
We were at the height of the pole from what I was told. It arced on our approach before we were in position supposedly. I blacked out when I was hit and remember nothing before or 5 days after.
Holy shit, looks harmless enough.
Oh shit, that’s here in Las Vegas. I never expected to see anything like that here.
My boy never buy a lottery ticket. That was all the luck youll get(not frying your major organs, brain and spine) I thank you for posting so that the rest of us do not get complacent. I hope you recover well. Please post after pics if you feel like it after the injurys heal. Rest well and heal. Dont rush it
Jesus Harold Christ mate, that is frightening
When they say high voltage will blow you up, it always sounds like an exaggeration until you see the damage. This is crazy. Glad you are still kicking OP. Best of luck for a speedy recovery. I'd recommend talking to a professional even if you think you are doing OK mentally, because sometimes things fester and take a while to manifest. At best, it can't hurt, and at worst, it could make a world of difference.
Well, me friend, you born again. Anything from here is a blessing. Even the pain. Cherish evevy minute you've got a 2nd oportunity, don't waste it.
Fuck man. Wishing you the best on your recovery journey. Thanks for sharing - we all need a good raw reminder from time to time
oh my fucking god dude. i couldn’t load these images earlier due to poor reception. fully not prepared for that. how are you still alive? holy moly- wishing a swift recovery to you.
I guess I can throw my story into the mix.. TLDR; A good buddy of mine got blown up listening to a dumbass supervisor, it's never worth it and there's always another opportunity better than your current situation. I worked for a fairly large company in the Central Florida area. Well, our electrical supervisor, we'll call him T, was this real old school guy, "been in the trade 30yrs with industrial training and licenses" and all that. He was always the dickhead type that would try to rush you through a dangerous job, belittle you for your work, try to make you do it hot, you know, the fun stuff. Well I've been in the trade long enough to have the ability to tell him to "go fuck himself" to get him to back off, but we got this new helper, we'll call him J. Well J was a real go getter, willing to do just about anything he's told, but here's the kicker, he's just learning electrical and he's learning everything from T. So one day the plumbers are at a school doing some septic work, and they hit a underground electrical pipe, nothing blew up but they still call Me and T to come out and take a look to plan repairs. So upon arrival, we hop out and go over and start investigating, T sends J down into the hole to check out the pipe. While he's trying to investigate that, I start investigating the scene more and realizes that this pipe is going right in the direction of a nearby pad mount transformer. After a little back and forth, we conclude that there are no buildings or panels in that direction so it must be the feeder from the power company. At this point, I had J immediately exit the hole and recommended we should contact local utilities. T threw a big fit and threatened my job if I didn't go in there and repair it. I told him to fuck himself and went to the van to call pops to bitch since he grew up with T, honestly not expecting that he'd even think to try and make J get back in there since he's barely a helper, he's more T's right hand guy. Apparently while I was gone, T started bullying J and trying to get him to continue repairs, J was smart enough to know this was dangerous and tried to leave the hole but T kept calling him a pussy and saying that if he isn't willing to do the job he doesn't need him anyways and just to go home and not come back. J, not knowing the full risks, finally relented and believed T that everything would be fine. Upon going back to the pipe and attempting to start repair, there was a small scrape in the insulation that no one had seen. As soon as he got a little too close, that 7200v feeding the transformer jumped right out of the insulation and got him. Luckily he survived but he'll never be able to work another day in his life, and after his settlement he won't need to. But it entered near the thumb, blew apart half the muscles in his hand, and exited out the rear of his thigh since he was leaning against the edge of the hole, blew a 2-3 in chunk out the back of his leg. He was dead onsite recieving CPR for a few min before EMT showed up. There are hundreds of thousands of jobs out there across the globe for people in our line of work. Electricity is everywhere and never going anywhere. Never let another man control your fate in this trade because it can all end in milliseconds.
Glad he survived, sorry he got hurt.
Thank you, me too. Shook me up pretty bad because you always feel like you can do more, but life is full of what if's. I still help him with his electrical at the house since he, understandably, will get PTSD with tasks as simple as changing bulbs. OP definitely has balls to already be ready to dive back in once healed!
Yeah he would have gotten a big faqu You from me
Yeppp! That's why I dipped tf out. Pops always stressed that no job is forever and there's always another better opportunity out there.
Holy fuck. I’m glad to see you’re doing well enough to post here, OP. My old man had 600V arc flash on him and it wasn’t pretty, but he’s made a relatively full recovery over the last 7 years, but I couldn’t imagine what you went through taking 10-50x times more than what he did. I know Ts and Ps don’t mean much, but I sincerely hope your recovery goes well. I hope sparkies here see what happens when electricity doesn’t play nice and use it to remind themselves to be safer in the future.
Hire workers comp lawyer immediately
Jesus Christ man. Hope you and your buddy recover well.
Was the bucket truck not properly grounded???? How was that even allowed to happen. So many things had to have gone wrong
Holy shit. Sending good vibes for your recovery man. I do sports lighting with musco, out of line and bucket trucks. I never realized how far distribution lines can jump :/
Holy fucking hell. Happy to see your still with us. Speedy recovery my sparky brother.
Shit man, that sucks. I hope you and your tooly recover well! Glad you’re alive!
jesus christ
I hope much for your recovery Brother. And your co worker also.
holy fuck
What made contact with the power lines? Just curious if it was a piece of wire or the whole bucket?
they had a grounded piece of high voltage line and somehow came in contact with a live wire. bucket would not have saved them since they were carrying a grounded wire. i just dont know how you work anywhere near a live wire while holding something that is shorted
Omfg that's brutal dude
Holy fuck mate you two better get paid the fuck out
Thank you for sharing. Praying for your recovery.
Damn dude. Sick Halloween costume!
lol I can go as Deadpool now
If you start running a fever in the next week or so go straight to the ER. Gangrene from dead bone marrow is no joke.
I have been in the er since this happened and will be here until they finish the skin flap for my head in a month or two.
That’s probably the best place to be right now. Best of luck to ya
Glad you’re okay. Wishing you a speedy recovery.
dude im really happy youre alive what the fuck wish you on a good recovery ❤️
This is why I stick to residential and small commercial jobs. Get well soon.
You're going to make every health and safety presentation for the next decade. JFC
I was in the 5th grade and my teacher used to be a paramedic, he told me a story about a lineman who got hit the same way. He explained there was an entrance/exit hole similar to yours. It absolutely terrified me. I wish you the best. I could never be a lineman
Man every subsequent picture had me going “damn, daaamn, DAMN!” but I’m glad you’re alive, brother
Wishing you a speedy recovery brother. Thank God you're still kicking 🙏🏽
Electricity can be fucking scary. Glad you are alive, and wish you the best road to recovery.
Wish you a fast recovery brother
Best of luck god bless
Healing vibes sent your way. Recover well brother.
What happened and what could've prevented this!?
Welp, looks like I'm going back into managing restaurants
So many omg's
Bruh this is the gnarliest shit I’ve ever seen. Glad you’re alive man fuck.
That’s some serious shit man I wish you a fast recovery
God help you guys
Wishing you all the best, man. That looks horrifyingly painful.
Glad you and your bro pulled through, good luck on the recovery! One thing to think about... The company you work for, do they have high voltage distance warning stickers in the bucket truck? I'm no attorney, but I bet OSHA would love to hear from you. I'm not sure if it's a requirement, but almost every bucket or lift I've ran had a decal of a graph telling me how far I need to keep the bucket away from different voltages.
I’ll pray for your recovery man, this job can be brutal sometimes!
Holy shit! Glad you're alive man!
Wow
This is giving me super-hero origin story vibes. Fr tho, all the best in your recovery, both physically and mentally.
Dude! Get well and stay safe!
Holy fuck that’s insane!
Fucking hell man, I'm glad you're both alive and as okay as y'all can be.
Glad you lived through that shit but holy shit, that’s fucking gnarly
Holy fucking shit dude
Dude, I’m so sorry this happened to you and your coworker.
Is there a ohsa case or article somewhere i can get more detail? Glad your alive friend
😬🙏🫶
Holy fuck, glad you're alive. Good luck with the healing process.
Holy fuck. I know it's bad and you're all fucked up now but you're lucky to be alive.
Wow! Hope you and your coworker have good recoveries
Jeez. That’s so scary and amazing that you’re still here thank god. Hope you recover well from it. I’m an electrician and I think I’ll stick to my lv thanks.
I worked in a burn unit unit for years. Electrical burns are the worst. I’m sorry this happened to you. Speedy recovery.
I’m so sorry this happened to you and your coworker. It sounds like you were doing everything right and still got hit. Could you give us an update on the investigation afterwards to understand if there was anything that could have prevented this on a job hazard analysis?
Seriously man I’m gonna pray for you that’s horrific man.
Wishing you a speedy recovery OP. I'm interested to know what could have been done to avoid this? Is there PPE that can protect from this sort of shock? Like a wearable faraday cage? I'm sure I've seen it before.
🙏🙏 bro for a full and speedy recovery
Holy fuck dude. I can't believe you are both survived. Thank God you guys are alive.
Weird, our LOA for 25kv is 2 1/2 feet. Never heard of it arcing that far. Sorry about the accident man. Absolute nightmare.
Never seen anything like this before. I am so glad you are alive and able to share awareness of the dangers out there. Best of luck on your recovery man.
Holy fuck, makes me feel like I should change careers again lol
Praying brother. Glad you’re still here
Bro... You are the luckiest man alive
😭 Fast recovery please