You only die once

Chapter 6 An electrical accident

Chapter 6

An electrical accident

A few weeks before my near-stroke and stent insertion, I was passing my time doing 'hard labour' making/fixing my van. I had bought a van three years ago and wanted to convert the interior to become a living space when we travel. Sort of a camper van but with a difference. It needed to almost instantly (well within minutes) convert to carry goods when needed and have a clear area of 6 feet long by 5 feet wide. That way, we could put four bicycles in easily or even motorcycles. You could move your worldly belongings into it and cart them away to another home. Actually, we did that a year ago when we temporarily moved out to another place while repairs were going on in our home.

I had fixed extra batteries to power up when living in the van. They had to be charged. So a connection had to be made to the power point at home. From the home, 240V power had to be converted to 12V DC to charge the batteries. So I had to fix a 30-foot wire from my van to the house. This time for some stupid reasoning (unqualified amateur electrician), I fixed three-pin plugs on both ends to bridge the long wire that end as a socket and the wall socket. So to bridge two sockets, I made a wire with two three-pin plugs on both ends. Been using this a few times. That day I was distracted talking to someone while putting the plug into the wall socket with my right hand. Next thing I knew, my left hand was violently shaking. In that instant I knew I had electricity in me! Within a second or less, I turned off the switch at the wall socket with my right hand. There was a shearing pain in my left arm and forearm. I could hardly move my fingers which appeared to be contracted into a fist. A couple of seconds later, I managed to open my left hand and there were two distinct wounds on my hand. One on my left thumb and another on my ring finger.

A few moments later, I realised what had happened. The live wire part of the plug was touching my ring finger and the neutral was on my thumb. I had held the other end of the wire with the socket. I didn't realise the switch was on when I plugged it in. Oh boy! I could well have died. Fortunately, I had held both the live and neutral wire on one hand. The electricity went through my ring finger, crossed my hand, and exited through my thumb. It didn't travel to the rest of my body. It was like an intense TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) therapy. But this was AC and not DC. Because it was AC, it was not continuous in one-way flow and was alternating, causing my muscles to contract and relax violently. Thus, I was fully conscious and able to react and switch off the power myself.

Reflecting on this incident, I was very fortunate. In Asian culture we don't usually wear shoes in the house. There was no rubber to insulate me from the ground. Thus, if I had not been holding the neutral wire at the same time, I would have been a 'fried chicken' already. A mishap, yet saved by holding both live and neutral wires/points. Damn luck. Bad luck to have been stupid enough. (I have rectified the wire and put one end with a socket and another with a plug. Not gonna risk it again.) But still, good luck to have held both points. If not, it would have been 'sayonara'.

So, near self-electrocution. I would not recommend anyone trying it. It is not worth it. Anyway, I have always liked science and feel science makes the world go round. Nothing else means as much as science in our society. Every bit of our living today is science. Ever since men made fire, it has been science. Adulterated with plenty of taboos and whims, and misguided understanding. Every singer today should bow to science. Without it and all the research, discoveries, and inventions, singers would and can only sing to the most number of people at any one time in an opera house. Imagine turning off the electricity in an auditorium or outdoor stage and asking the singer to continue... That would be hilarious. Imagine being stuck at home with Covid-19, unable to roam with no internet, TV, or radio because the government ran out of money and can't supply the electricity. Oops. We would be totally cut off. Imagine messages being written down and a runner having to run or cycle to deliver it urgently. Oops. We may forget how to write or don't have a pen. So while we marvel at singers and footballers and they get paid enormous amount of money, the real workers who got them there are 'men and women of science'.

Okay. Back to medicine....

Reference:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcutaneous_electrical_nerve_stimulation