After effects of Electric Shock

Those sound pretty good to me. The skin burn might not only be at the point of contact, but also at the point of exit.

As an aside,

I watched my step dad get shocked pretty good by 110v when I was a kid. Swear to god, I saw sparks shoot from his eyes. I'll never forget it. But yeah, he was pretty dizzy and had some tingling afterward. No burns from the 110v though.

A guy I know got zapped in a walk-in generator. He convulsed, fell to the floor, crawled outside and puked his guts out.

Allz - 110v is nothing. I'd do that on a dare. I've been zapped with 110, 220 A/C and 500 D/C. The 500v sure makes you jump, but none of them caused symptoms beyond the feeling you get when you've had too much coffee after the initial jolt. Sure as hell wakes you up and gets the adrenaline pumping though.

Yes, that's about right.

As impled by "point of exit," you need a connection to TWO parts of the body to get an electric shock. One is generally the source of voltage, and the other is usually a path to ground which completes the circuit. If they're of approximately equal area, such as the source of voltage hits one finger while another finger of the same hand touches a voltage "return" path such as metal equipment cabinet, both points can be burned. If it's especially high voltage (probably more than US power voltage of 120V) and high power, it can cause bad burning, even destroying the fingers or hand.

If the current goes through the chest, such as from one hand to the other, or from a hand to the feet in the classic situation of standing barefoot on a wet floor, it MAY cause electrocution. Electrocution is caused by external electric currents that are strong enough to "confuse" the heart muscles and stop them. You usually don't feel much or anything in the feet (any more than the rest of the body!) because they have such a large surface area against the floor, there's not much current per unit of area and not much to feel.

But if it's going to "throw them to the ground" it's problably from one hand to the other, or from a hand to feet, and when they get up they can legitimately be called "lucky to be alive."

Many decades ago when all electronic devices used vacuum tubes, just about every part of a radio or TV had dangerous high voltages. One safety tip for technicians (probing around with voltmeter probes to determine what's wrong) is use one hand for probing and put your other hand in your pocket, thus making sure you're not touching anything with it to complete a circuit and get shocked. And of course wear insulating shoes and don't stand on a wet floor.

ETA: some injuries caused by electric shock are "secondary" - they're caused by jerking the hand back at a great speed when feeling the shock, then the hand hitting some solid object.

Hey Amarie,

It really depends upon how your character gets a shock.

You see, there are a whole bunch of variables when one gets a shock. What may give you a sore arm one day may well kill you under different circumstances.

So more info please.

Regards

Whacko

My husband was the recipient of a nasty shock a few years ago when at an old house, he and my dad were trying to disconnect an old electric fireplace. In the crawlspace under the house, he cut the wire (after being told the power was off when it actually wasn't). There was a huge explosion of light (their words) and he was thrown across the crawlspace. The end of the pliers were gone. Melted off. He reports feeling like he had just finished the most brutal workout of his life--every muscle in his body hurt. The ends of his fingers were burnt also. He says he felt tingly all over, and he had "twitches" for a couple of days.

Muscle pain and stiffness - like having had a really rough workout - can last for several days.

Dark urine - from destruction of muscle tissue

Tsu Dho Nimh said:

Muscle pain and stiffness - like having had a really rough workout - can last for several days.

Dark urine - from destruction of muscle tissue

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Later on, yes.

I accidentally electrocuted myself plugging in a power cord to 240v. During the shock is was like tensing every part of your body and being kicked all over. You can't think, you can't do anything. Then immediately afterwards you feel like you've just gotten airborne for a moment in a car going over a bump, except this feeling lasts. Also weird and tingly all over.

I was silly enough to accidently stick my finger into a 240v socket while trying to change a bulb, pain shot up my arm and i was thrown backwards into my mum who i almost knocked over. Afterwards my heart rate was all over the place as if it had been knocked out of rythum (which it prob had). Also my finger on the hand which was shocked tingled and was a little painful. My heart settled after a couple of minutes but my finger tingled for the rest of the day.

As a side note i was about 24 when this happened and very fit from a lot of sport, it is possible that it could hve effected someone else differently.

Amarie said:

It sounds as if I have to make the character actually touch the machine to do the grounding, right? Originally I had him standing a few meters away.

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Unless the machine is specifically designed to produce such bolts, a range of metres is unlikely. Such a discharge would also be likely to find a nearer conductive target too.

Sparks can jump gaps though. One example is a Van de Graff generator. These are also a good illustration that voltage isn't what determines the seriousness of a shock. Sparks created often exceed 100,000v , but they are safe to demonstrate to a class of kids.

In terms of physical effects, current and the entry/exit path of the electricity determine whether you feel a sharp tingle or get 'fried'.

I've had an electric shock throw me across the room into a wall. (Someone had wired something wrong, I put my hand somewhere that should have been 100% safe. But wasn't)

It was, um, not pleasant. At the time, I felt like I'd had a lot to drink - muzzy headed, pretty incoherent. Giggly too for some reason. I went home (work didn't call an ambulance, can you believe? I wasn't up to saying I wanted one), walked in and said 'Hi hon. I've had a shock. *giggle*' Luckily no burns (possibly cos I was wearing rubber soled safety shoes?) Two days later the whiplash kicked in like a bitch - I couldn't move my neck for a week. Other than that, no permanent damage.

Shock Experienced

Hello,
I stumbled across this site while researching how long side effects could last after experiencing an electrical shock. I was shocked while transporting a patient from the ER to the ICU. I attempted to push the automatic door openers with my right hand while holding the patients bed rail with my left hand that a defibrilaor monitor was leaning against. A blue and green light arked out of the wall and into my right hand grounding me between the monitor and the wall. I had an instant headache followed by chest pain, tingling and numbness with pain to my left side of my face, left arm, left leg. I experienced plack burn marks up my left arm from hand to armpit and the next day had a blood clot appear in my right lower leg. I ended up with a heart cath which shown I was fine, but continued to have chest discomfort. It has been a year and I still have pain and numbness to my left arm, should and left side of my face, along with periodic chest discomfort. Was not sure if this was what you were looking for, but maybe it will help. Contact me if I can be of further assistance.

I got put on the ground by a cattle fence once. Other than frantic heart beat for a few minutes and an aching hand for the rest of the day, there were no long term effects for me.

I don't know if you can work it in or if it will matter that much, but if the victim grabs it with their right hand it is more likely to pass the electricity through their heart and kill them. If they grab it with their left the electricity passes around the heart with it being less likely to kill them. This is obviously when the electricity is at a high enough voltage to kill the person.

After a strong shock - like one from a lightning strike, or even just one powerful enough to knock the person down - there is lingering cellular damage all through the path the electricity took through the body, usually strongest around the entry wound. This is responsible for both the tissue destruction and the lingering numbness. Larger cells with lower surface-to-mass ratios are more vulnerable to this membrane destruction, so muscle cells and nerve cells take the brunt of the damage. This effect can linger for days and worsen with time, as the cells have a capacitance capable of holding on to the electrons causing the damage. If someone loses the use of their hand after the initial shock, they could lose their whole arm by the end of the week. In effect, the victim is "infected" with cascading electrical damage.

If the shock lasts more than a fraction of a second, heat damage becomes an issue. Burns at the entry and exit points, along with internally along the path of the shock, can cause lasting pain and/or organ damage.

If struck anywhere near the head the victim often suffers headaches, dizziness, loss of consciousness, depression, sleeping troubles, blurred vision and a whole mess of other symptoms of minor brain damage.

Amarie said:

I don't know if the weight of the person matters, but the character is a young teenager, so he doesn't have much mass to him. It's a futuristic story so the shock comes from a machine trying to keep the character from shutting it off. It sounds as if I have to make the character actually touch the machine to do the grounding, right? Originally I had him standing a few meters away.

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No. It depends upon the voltage and the conductivity of the materials.

In the US, overhead electric lines in residential neighborhoods are frequently 3,000 volts, which the transformers reduce down for households. As a result of various situations like tree limbs, these lines sometimes get knocked to the ground. Hopefully the fuse will trip and the power will go off for that section of line. Sometimes it doesn't.

Visually what you may see is the wire smoking on the ground. But for your story, here's the important part. Often the electricity sort of spreads out from the wire, and may cover an area up to twenty or more feet from the wire (water is a big factor here). As you approach the wire, your shoes will start to tingle. As you approach the wire closer, the tingling gets worse. No one does more then that.

So if the machine is constantly on, you won't approach close enough for it to shock you enough to blow you backwards. But if the machine comes on to defend itself, then yes, it would generate enough shock to cause your muscles to spasm.

You can have the machine defend itself from several meters away.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

THIS IS A ZOMBIE THREAD FROM 2011!!!

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe