A Litany of Limbs

Dave Smith has been an Industrial Maintenance Electrician since 1975. He has taught maintenance, troubleshooting and safety courses to thousands of electricians in mines, mills, refineries, factories, plants, power stations and offshore platforms throughout North America and the Middle East. Dave is a hands-on guy and teache...

Back in October, I told you about a friend of mine, Curt, who had just left his local lineman job for a dream job in a small mountain city when he was severely injured while working on a 14.4kV line. At the time of writing, you’ll recall, Curt’s gloves were burned onto his hands and his cell phone burned into his leg. And while I sit here at my computer typing things like, “Do this” or “Don’t do that” in my columns, perhaps it’s best for you to hear from Curt himself about this incident and his life afterward.

Maybe we can all learn a little something about working with lethal energy.

It happened September 13 around 2:30 p.m. The job was to string in a new three-phase 25kV (14.4kV to ground) overhead line to feed a new water plant. After 10 years in the powerline trade this job wasn’t a huge or complicated job. The substituting foreman and I went up in the bucket to dead-end the wires and crimp on riser wires.

While tying in a wire, I remember thinking to myself: Be careful... watch the wire you’re holding.

All of a sudden I was stuck to the wire and couldn’t let go. I realized I was being electrocuted. The foreman had contacted the energized 14.4kV line with his forearm. He was somehow touching my back with his other arm, so the electricity went into my back and exited through my hands.

The exit wound is always the worst. I peered down at myself for a split second and knew that something bad had happened. Conscious during the whole electrocution, I felt very helpless and scared. My hands felt like they were on fire. Words can’t begin to describe the pain.

All I could think about was my wife and kids, and how I didn’t want to die.

I was rushed to the hospital where they stabilized me. I remember seeing my wife, Dani (Danielle), after the incident, and we both started to cry. We were so glad I was alive. I was then flown to the burn hospital, where I stayed nearly nine weeks and underwent seven major surgeries.

I came close to death three times. First, the incident itself; many doctors and professionals say that my health and age saved my life. Second, I suffered a pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in my lung). And at one point I was rushed into emergency surgery because of severe bleeding after a main artery in my left arm burst.

I can’t explain how glad I am that I am going to get to see my kids grow and continue through life with Dani.

On October 23, I received the worst news I could possibly hear, and was faced with a major decision. My surgeon told me that the damage in my left wrist area was more severe than originally thought. My median nerve was separated; my ulnar nerve, though intact, looked like mush. The bone was badly burnt and my tendons looked worse.

The surgeon explained I had two options. I could do nothing, in which case my left hand would have very little mobility, little to no feeling, and I would never truly be able to engage in sports again. The second option was to remove the hand and get a prosthesis.

It was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make. Dani and I cried for days and weeks about it. While the prosthetic hand is the best piece of technology available, it can never replace the hand with which I was born.

I wake up every day thinking—hoping—that this has all been just a terrible dream.

The grief is evident in Curt’s words, as well as those from other tragedies. High voltage robbed Paul Hiebert of both feet and an arm, while a Nova Scotian lost both his feet and arms—and still regrets that he lives. When low voltage took Zane Lundell’s left hand, it ended his guitar playing.

Ever since Edison turned on the power, electrical workers have risked their limbs and lives for the comfort, convenience and profit of others. It’s high time this changed.

Until next time, be ready, be careful and be safe.