Electric fence

I was talking to my neighbour through our electric fence( an unfortunate necessity in South Africa) when my head acidentandly touched the live strand resulting in me getting a 5500 volt shock. My PM stuttered a bit but it was an instantaneius shock. What ae the dangers of this should it happen again. I am the chairman/caretaker of a block of flats that is surrounded by this fence.

7 Comments

It depends!

by Okiecrat - 2012-12-16 07:12:34

The danger from such a shock varies depending on the voltage, amperage, timing in relation to phase of heart rhythm, duration of shock, and path of shock through body. The shock from the fence you describe should not be dangerous but it could conceivably cause your device to malfunction. Talk to your doctor and ask him what the dangers are.

electric fence

by stan - 2012-12-16 08:12:16

Thank you for your prompt reply. Much appreciated

now?

by Tracey_E - 2012-12-16 08:12:55

How do you feel now? Odds are slim you hurt anything. Obviously, it's best to not touch the fence! We should stay at least a few feet away from electric fences. It's not dangerous to be near them but it can temporarily interfere with the pm if we get to close.

OUCH!!!!

by donr - 2012-12-16 09:12:07

Barefoot on wet asphalt! Good grief, no wonder you felt a bolt from the blue.

Now you know why you DON'T want to be the third kind of man.

I have taken about 300V, DC through a minute scratch in the forearm during a lab in electrical Engineering. Cannot recall where the path closed, but it HURT!

Glad you survived to tell about it.

Don

.elecric fence

by stan - 2012-12-16 09:12:41

This happened a few days ago.I felt quite startled at first, but then I touched it with my head and the initial shock was a normal hit you get from these things. I felt a bit dazed for a few minutes but have had no after affects that I can notice. My pulse is still resting at 60-62bpm. Before I had the PM it had dropped to 32 bpm. My diagnosis was a sick sinus node. Never even knew that sins had anything to do with the heart

DO you know what Will Rogers said?

by donr - 2012-12-16 11:12:33

Stan: Will Rogers was an American humorourist from back in the 1930's. He said many memorable things, but most memorable in US lore was his wisdom about electric fences.

"There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/willrogers393513.html#zlFIl1i3yIilMfVR.99"

I have a granddaughter who falls into the third category!

Obviously, you fall into category number two, since you touched it w/ your head.

From your observations after the fact, it probably did not affect your PM.

I posted this comment last week for someone w/ essentially the same question:

"Try this for a n explanation...
Comment posted by donr on 2012-12-13 00:52.
The Defib used a pair of paddles placed on either side of the heart. They operate at some voltage known but to the mfgr of the device, somewhere between 200 V & 2500 V. THAT does not count! What does count is the electric current that flows through your body & heart. Since the voltage is fairly high, the very small current - measured in several thousandths of an amp, and lasting but a few thousandths of a second - flows in a pretty narrow path from one paddle to the other. Since the heart is right in its path, it flows through the heart, doing what it is supposed to do.

Now your PM is located above the path of the current flow, so it gets very little of it flowing past it. But - the real secret is that the PM is in a sealed case made of Titanium - a metal & hence a conductor of electricity. The leads are attached to the PM w/ an outer sheath that is electrically connected to the case, hence everything PM connected is sealed inside the conducting outer shell of the device. The current from the external defib device comes up to the case & flows very nicely around it on the outside of its skin. That's just the nature of electric currents & conductors - electric charges reside on essentially the surface of the conductors. Hence none of it gets inside where all the electronic gadgets & gizmos are.

Let me give you an example on a grander scale. Airplanes get hit by lightning all the time. The current flows all around the airplane on the surface of its skin & the passengers inside do not get shocked, electrically. They sure as Heck get the shock of their lives from all the buffeting & noise of the thunder that accompanies the lightning. Unless the lightning disrupts the skin of the plane at the point where it strikes, there is little damage to the structure. I don't recommend intentionally flying into a thunderstorm to see what it is like, however.

Hope this made some sense to you."

I assume that the 5500 volts is accompanied by a current that is quite low - in the thousandths of an amp - and very short duration - again thousandths of a second. After all, you want to surprise elephants & whatever else wanders up against the fence, not kill them. Who wants to dispose of a multi-ton corpse, rotting away in the mid-summer Sun. (Just trying my Will Rogers act - I know that elephants are not your primary problem.)

You also did not say what the other point of contact was (Other than head). I assume it was your feet on the ground. I'm kinda surprised that you got much of a shock from that - if you were wearing leather boots w/ rubber soles & the ground was dry. I ask because the other point of contact establishes what the current path through the body is. Head to feet or hand to hand are the worst - in each instance the current flows past the heart. Hand to head or hand to foot on the same side would be less serious - but not necessarily by a significant amount.

You also say your PM "Stuttered;" what do you mean by that & how did you sense it? Things in the PM happen in the millisecond (Thousandths) range & are difficult for the mind to really sense & put into much context. I have taken 120 Volt shocks hand to hand & there was not even a record of their occurrence in the PM memory.

The dangers if it happens again? To your PM, not very much danger. To YOU - get the shock just wrong & it could conceivably kill you. By just wrong I mean this: There is a period in your heartbeat sequence where an electric pulse could cause you to go into Ventricular Fibrillation - potentially fatal. After the BIG squiggle in your ECG trace called the QRS, (That is the time when the ventricles are functioning) there is a period when the heart muscles are resetting themselves for the next beat. This period has a name - the "T Wave." A voltage pulse delivered to the heart just right during this short period can cause V-Fib. PM's & ICD's are designed just to avoid this period of time w/ their pulses.

All that being said, the danger to you w/ the PM is no greater than for a normal person who is handicapped by not being Bionic w/ a PM.

Wish you the best w/ all the elephants.

Don

Electric fence

by stan - 2012-12-16 12:12:31

Dear Don
Thank you for yor very comprehensive and humorous account of my query. Wish elephants were the problem, not unwelcome visitors.Just as a matter of interest regarding electric fences and elephants I have jut finished a very interesting book called "The Elephant Whisperer" by Lawrence Anthony.
You ask where the rest of the shock went - I was barefoot on a damp tar surface. maybe I am the third kind.
When I said that the PM stuttered it might have been the fright I got and I sure got a fright much to the delight and amusement of my neighbour.
Regards
Stan.

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You fondly named your implanted buddy.

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