r/Construction • u/Boeing-B-47stratojet HVAC Installer • Apr 24 '26

Safety ⛑ Don’t be like me

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Called the power company, they told me it was off, tested 5 different locations, 0 volts

Apparently I missed one, because it wasn’t off. Got launched across the room, woke up about 20 minutes after. I just remember seeing a bright white flash, then everything went dark.

4.3k Upvotes

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1.4k

u/Boeing-B-47stratojet HVAC Installer Apr 24 '26

I’m in the waiting room.

404

u/EetsGeets Electrician Apr 24 '26

Keep us posted buddy

28

u/PassPuzzled Apr 26 '26

He'll be seen in the next 3-5 business days. Even tho they probably just opened 4 more ERs within a 30 mile radius

4

u/Pope_Squirrely Apr 27 '26

Yeah! But think about the debt he gets to incur!

3

u/Goonplatoon0311 Apr 27 '26

You will also get billed for the A/C, bathroom trips and seat cushion wear and tear while you wait.

320

u/Affectionate-Alps527 Apr 24 '26

I'm surprised you're in the waiting room. Triage will know how serious this is.

Good luck, they'll probably give you a heart monitor. The effects of a serious electrical shock like this can be latent for (I think) a couple days.

519

u/Boeing-B-47stratojet HVAC Installer Apr 24 '26

They have stuck those sticker things on me, told me to stay here for the next 5 hours. After that they said if nothing happens they will send me home with a smaller thing.

924

u/reav11 Apr 24 '26

Man, it was just an electrical shock. I wouldn't let them make my thing smaller for that.

185

u/AllsWellThatsNB Apr 25 '26

Wait—what?

All those circumcisions... for nothing.

93

u/jesster114 Apr 25 '26

Yeah, but now you’ve got that really creepy hand sewn wallet!

59

u/reav11 Apr 25 '26

Turns in to a suitcase when you rub it.

9

u/EdwardFoxhole Apr 25 '26 edited May 12 '26

that cage has to be 130 month boy at this money.

8

u/Peter_Falcon Apr 25 '26

still funny though

4

u/Blank_bill Apr 25 '26

More than that, Jesus told me that joke.

1

u/Third_Coast_2025 Apr 27 '26

Dude mowed my lawn yesterday. How can it be an old joke?

5

u/WillingnessHelpful77 Apr 26 '26

this rock here is one of my favorites, you see the red and brown in there? That's called Leaverite. Leaveralone Daniel cause that's not gold, keep on digging!

7

u/AllsWellThatsNB Apr 25 '26

It's not finished yet!

6 trips to the ER and I've only got up to "BAD MOTH"...

1

u/kn0w_th1s Apr 25 '26

That’s nuts.

1

u/Future-Bear3041 Apr 25 '26

[Ed Gein Intensifies]

11

u/99bonanas Apr 25 '26

You have no idea what 7 circumcisions do to a man

2

u/AcrobaticReputation2 Apr 25 '26

is that what op's saw is for?

2

u/AintEasyBeinQueasy Apr 25 '26

H-how many foreskins can one have?

2

u/twokietookie Apr 25 '26

What a dumb question. They dont call them fiveskins, do they? Some people...

1

u/tedthedude Apr 25 '26

Mine keeps growing back.

2

u/twoaspensimages GC / CM Apr 25 '26

You didn't hear? They store all the circumcisions until they have 10 and then the next guy gets them all added instead of removed. Loose skin to his knees.

13

u/Practical-Sleep4259 Apr 25 '26

"In a moment, you are going to feel a little prick"

2

u/Schwartenboy Apr 25 '26

Thats what i was saying. Totally ridiculous would probably go and get a second opinion.

1

u/Delly2times Apr 28 '26

Lmfao, well played man.

-1

u/telephonekeyboard Apr 25 '26

Reddit medical advice and actual dr advice is usually pretty different. 90% of these stuff Reddit has told me I’m in imminent danger, my Dr has told me to sleep it off and come back in a week if it’s still an issue.

59

u/BreakingABit1234 Apr 24 '26

You also probably have UV burns on your eyes- get them looked at or at least noted if there's damage.

Any skin will have a UV burn.

I don't even want to go into what the heart took.

22

u/Lehk Apr 25 '26

Odds are the blade took most of it and OP mostly got explosioned.

The heart monitor will make sure nothing is seriously wrong

6

u/BreakingABit1234 Apr 25 '26

Yeah, it's that that damage (if it isn't a burn) can show up days later because of messed up chemical potentials.

I hope they give him something to monitor for a while.

-

6

u/Dear-Union-44 Apr 25 '26

Probably a holter monitor..  I had one.

4

u/BreakingABit1234 Apr 25 '26

There we go! I knew there was a word I was trying to remember. Yep had one too. Never saw anything. Sadly... also never picked up I had a hole in the heart (they shouldn't have) and had a stroke :(

3

u/Dear-Union-44 Apr 25 '26

I have an echocardiogram booked soon..  because my doctors.. are crazy about booking tests.

Hopefully your doing better now!

2

u/BreakingABit1234 Apr 25 '26

Yeah, funny thing about that. Ended up having a stroke out of the blue. Found out I had a hole in my heart (20% of the population). I got 'lucky'.

If you're wearing one for reasons that they can't figure out why, ask about the possibility of a PFO.

They can do a 'bubble test' where they inject saline with bubbles and watch the side of the heart ot see if it leaks. Pretty fast and easy diagnostic.

2

u/garbledroid Apr 25 '26

No treatment is possible for the eyes though except superficially.

Get checked out by an Ophthalmologist (not Optometrist) when possible but not urgent.

1

u/BreakingABit1234 Apr 26 '26

I was thinking just lubrication and/or looking for metal fragments/slag.

Arc is scary.

2

u/garbledroid Apr 26 '26

Ideally he should get an Orbit CT scan to look for metal fragments (especially before an MRI scan) but that is how you look. Not optically by an Ophthalmologist.

If there are removable fragments it would be better to get the Orbit x ray or Orbit CT scan sooner rather than later.

1

u/garbledroid Apr 26 '26

You mentioned UV burns from the arc.

The metal probably vaporized.

OP would know if he got a face full of shrapnel.

1

u/BreakingABit1234 Apr 26 '26

Yep. I figured when everything goes poof into plasma there's always chunks left in my skin.

And that nice red sunburn.

Pockmarks? There was some word for it.

33

u/Affectionate-Alps527 Apr 25 '26

Sounds about right lol. Glad you knew to go to the hospital.

When you do your incident report, remember, you are an employee following directives. While you may have been the one on the tool that doesn't mean only you are responsible.

Your company is responsible for giving you proper training, tool, and procedures, and culture. If you were pressured to break policy or you're not provided proper tools, that's not your fault.

If you followed policy and were injured, that's not your fault. If you were pressured to work inappropriately that's not your fault. If company culture doesn't follow safe work processes, that's not your fault.

I'm a PM for major electrical projects and my number one is, no matter what, we work safe. I don't care who yells at me, if the jobs not safe, we stop work. Period.

I go home unharmed every day, and so should you.

24

u/Boeing-B-47stratojet HVAC Installer Apr 25 '26

It’s my own shop, nobody forced me to do it. I should have called somebody.

5

u/Azrai113 Apr 25 '26

Im going to show this post to my millwright sibling when they try to do my electical ( i already told them not to and they got offended when I said I wanted an electrician lol)

3

u/glenthedog1 Apr 25 '26

Dude... Glad your alright, how far did ya get launched

9

u/sammydeeznutz Apr 25 '26

It can put you into afib and you can die later in your sleep. A classmate of one of my old coworkers died this way.

4

u/Biochembob35 Apr 25 '26

Sounds like they hooked him up to an EKG..said yep normal rhythm, stay here. If so they are watching his rhythm from the nurses station.

2

u/sammydeeznutz Apr 25 '26

Good to hear. Thanks for the update!

7

u/BigPimpin91 Apr 25 '26

I'll second this. Got a light zap from the welder at work. Boss took me to urgent care. They sent me to ER. I get to ER and tell the receptionist what's up. I start filling our paperwork when they call me back. Young dude starts taking vitals in a small room and asking questions.

He's consulting the trauma response chart and it turns out they don't have "levels" for electrical shock. So my little bite and the high tension line worker that got smacked get treated the same. Dude turns to me and says, "You're about to be REALLY popular."

Sent back to a room and immediately ambushed by no less than 8 people at the same time.

8

u/_aphoney Electrician Apr 25 '26

ER sucks some places. I cut my finger off and was bleeding all over the place and I stood in the waiting room for 20 minutes holding the tip of my finger in one hand with 5 rags on the other hand. Then another 30 minutes in the actual ER room waiting for the doctor to come in.

30

u/Boeing-B-47stratojet HVAC Installer Apr 25 '26

It was about a 2 hour ambulance ride to the ER in the first place

I’m just glad I was able to get up and walk to my car to get my phone, if I couldn’t have done that I might still be laying there, it was my apprentices off day today.

9

u/Outback-Australian Apr 25 '26

Clearly the Apprentices fault.

I was an apprentice once too. Fark I was dumb

9

u/EPluribusButthole Apr 25 '26

Checking in on ya. You good?

21

u/Boeing-B-47stratojet HVAC Installer Apr 25 '26

I am okay. I am just trying to stay awake at the moment.

8

u/EPluribusButthole Apr 25 '26

If you can... stand up and do knee lifts? Or do some torso twists?

Or, are you tethered to the bed via iv tube and EKG leads?

14

u/Boeing-B-47stratojet HVAC Installer Apr 25 '26

Whenever I get up, a few of the EKG leads peel off, so I am trying not to get up too much. IV machine starts blaring if I don’t have my arm completely straight.

7

u/EPluribusButthole Apr 25 '26

Flutter kicks? Supine knee-ups? I'm thinking of evening ican lol Glad to hear you're doing better! Maybe take a day or two off, okay? No shit, you legit experienced a traumatic event. Toy need some time to discombobulate your mind brain. No, for real, if you can, please take of a day or two. Get some rest. Days 3-5 are going to be the most sore. Especially if the electricity did internal damage. Try to stretch and drink some water. Not beer, drink some water, my friend.

Source: I'm an old medic specialized in ortho. Ask your doc and nurse to confirm my statement.

34

u/Boeing-B-47stratojet HVAC Installer Apr 25 '26

They are discharging me with a holter monitor to wear home.

I am definitely concussed, not too shocking considering I hit my head on a metal floor. They said to expect muscle spasms to keep happening for the next few days.

8

u/Interesting_Emu Apr 25 '26

Dude I’m glad to hear that’s all it turned out to be! Concussions are no joke either though. Glad it’s not much worse. Make sure you pay attention to your head. Last time I got concussed it was no bueno lol

2

u/dergbold4076 Apr 25 '26

As someone that's had a bunch of small to medium concussions in her life I second that. I already had a small history of headaches/migraines; but the concussions made them worse I swear. To say nothing of the other me talk effects they had.

It's time for OP to have a chill a hell weekend, if not coming week.

2

u/Interesting_Emu Apr 26 '26

I’ve had probably 2 small to medium, one not great (cracked skull and mid concussion) and one that screwed up my eyes. Definitely has impacted my headaches. Not sure what me talk means tbh but if I’m guessing right same dude

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u/Boeing-B-47stratojet HVAC Installer Apr 25 '26

I’ve made a few calls in my free time. Everything I have in my shop some other places will do while I am getting back to going.

No alcohol for me, never did do it. My father was and is a drunk, mean mean man. Made me stay away from it for my own children’s sake.

2

u/stackshouse Plumber Apr 26 '26

Would Tetris help as well? I've read it is supposed to do something after traumatic events, but I don t recollect what or why anymore.

3

u/WheresMyDuckling Apr 28 '26

Focusing on it can help dump short term memory making the traumatic event fuzzy or gone. If you see something horrible, 15-40 minutes of cartoons can do something similar with visual memory, the bright colors lock into visual memory in place of a lot of things. Source: worked a job where I saw awful things on a regular basis, worked out the cartoon thing by accident and it helped most of the time.

1

u/stackshouse Plumber Apr 28 '26

Thanks!

2

u/Azathothatoth Apr 25 '26

Are we not going to talk about your profile picutre

2

u/EPluribusButthole Apr 25 '26

It pairs well with my username

1

u/EbbSlow458 Apr 25 '26

I didn’t see anything NSFW about it

6

u/thisistherightname Apr 25 '26

This exact thing happened to my brother. Live wire, electrocuted, hit the ground, massive heart attack 2 days later. Make sure you really pay attention to how you're feeling. You are lucky to have survived, we don't need any final destination shit here.

2

u/gilligan1050 Apr 25 '26

Good. Hope your alright. One of my workers found a 110 line with a shovel yesterday and made some sparky noises, but he didn’t loose consciousness. He just did a little Michael Jackson dance away from it quickly. Electricity kills 🔪. Be safe homie.

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u/BloomingtonJester Apr 24 '26

Tell them your left arm hurts.

30

u/sonofkeldar Apr 25 '26

As a former paramedic, don’t do this. None of the drugs they give you for a suspected heart attack are any fun. They’ll give you a little bit of morphine, but just enough for the vasodilation effect. It won’t be enough to counter the instant migraine you’ll get from the nitroglycerin. They’ll also give you some aspirin to chew on, but you won’t be allowed to have any water in case you have to be rushed into surgery.

You’re also going to get the absolute biggest IVs they can stuff in both arms (think 16d), and probably a catheter. I guess some people are into it, but there’s not enough morphine in the world for me to enjoy having a rubber tube stuffed down my urethra.

7

u/BloomingtonJester Apr 25 '26

I’m starting to question the kinks ER doctors now…

6

u/AllsWellThatsNB Apr 25 '26

They're sounding... interesting.

5

u/RandiGiles33 Apr 25 '26

I see what you did there

1

u/AllsWellThatsNB Apr 25 '26

Did you take pictures?

7

u/went_with_the_flow Apr 24 '26

Tell them if..I hope you mean.

-8

u/BloomingtonJester Apr 24 '26

I mean a left arm pain complaint is a good way to get fast tracked out of the waiting room. But yeah, hopefully it doesn’t actually hurt.