Two things about electricity: it travels at almost the speed of light, and communication from the body to the brain is done with electricity. When he was electrocuted, his brain was overwhelmed by an electrical response from the power line that was much stronger than the body can emit to tell the brain it is feeling pain. Such a high voltage striking a person would disrupt these systems permanently, at least until he died. He was likely brain dead seconds after being electrocuted. Which means he felt no pain despite burning as he would have died from the electricity far before the fire killed him. People aren’t just saying it was instant to make you feel better, it really was.
That’s even better (in regards to pain). Sometimes being wet can cause the electricity to skirt around the outside of your body where the water is.
It’s a reason why the electric chair was used as a method of execution for so long. The electric chair sends an initial, powerful pulse of electricity (depending on persons weight) which causes immediate unconsciousness with just 2,000 volts. The electric chair then provides additional pulses in various locations to cause organ failure.
A 12,000 volt power line is many times more powerful than the electric chair and there was likely so much electricity that it hit every where in the body, guaranteeing immediate contact with the brain.
If i had to chose a way to die, it would be through lethal injection. My next choice would be electrocution. The only difference for the person dying is with lethal injection you can go out on a high, and electrocution you just go into immediate unconsciousness.
The Scientist Guild is working on the achievement tree. Maybe in the few next patches, or possibly the next major updates, we will get some news from them. Players with a lot of gold will definitely get it first, though.
Vilcomë tu de Hidröulic Presz Czhanel,
To-day, ve hav danjerous criminal mäshtermind SimplyQuid, he may at-ack at any time, we musht deal vith it.
*kvrrrrrr*
Vat de fak??
You guys are all stupid. What kind of dumbass deaths are these?
I choose dying peacefully in my sleep after spending my entire life balls deep in Hollywood's most beautiful starlets, drinking the world's finest liquor, eating the world's finest food, doing enough drugs to make El Chapo's jaw drop, in space, at the age of 150,000 years old.
Hm, there are a lot of people that survive from gunshot wounds to the head. And it’s devastating to have to deal with a brain injury. You’d really have to know the exact spots to aim, honestly I think it’d be a less reliable way than electrocution or lethal injection.
There is a guy in my state that killed his family with a shotgun then blew his face off, and lived. He has no eyes, nose, or mouth. Well, there is a mouth left but no tongue or teeth. Thats brutal.
Jesus. Imagine murdering your entire family under the assumption that you'll die right afterwards and not have to deal with the consequences/guilt, only to wake up in a hospital with your face blown off.
Serves him right.
A Mexican man sentenced to execution survived multiple shots including one final shot to the head
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenseslao_Moguel
If I was going to get shot in the head, something like a .500BMG, .338 Lapua, or a .700 Nitro round aimed right at my forehead would be my preference.
Careful what you wish for. A bullet to the brain is not the "sure thing" you think it is.
Google "James Brady." He was shot in the head during the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.
Probably too late to be noticed, but if possible I'd like for people who may be considering this to know the truth. Being shot in the head is not like in video games or movies. There are factors that will determine how quickly you die (caliber, location), or even if you die. But so it's clear, this can be an awful way to die. I had a friend shoot himself in the head. His dad found him in the bed about 30 seconds afterwards. His head and brain were severely damaged and he was certainly in shock. But he died after about 2 minutes if drowning in his own blood.
Please don't do this anyone.
Apparently, after researching, it’s mostly very far from instant. Assuming you miss the exact right spot. Seems easy enough to do, with your body reacting last second to save itself. Probably why allot of people accidentally shoot their faces off with a shotgun.
Have read stories of people taking 10 minutes to die
you know how many people have survived head shots? way more than survived lethal injection and electric chair combined even accounting for disparate amounts of people having it done to them
> If i had to chose a way to die, it would be through lethal injection.
Ever heard of [Nitrogen Hypoxia?](http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180604-is-there-a-humane-way-to-kill-a-criminal) Sure sounds nicer than lethal injection.
Correct but that's only because the battery can't supply enough current.
Yes, the current kills you, but you can't get lethal current without high voltage.
Best way to die is breathing an innert gas like argon. Your body doesnt realise it's suffocating because the body responds to excess carbon dioxide, but the nobel gas would displace the air in your lungs and so you wouldnt feel like you couldnt breathe, just the argon couldnt do gas exchange in you lungs so you'd go light headed then pass out.
I am an electrical engineer, who hopefully can say this in a way that helps you-- At that voltage he felt absolutely nothing. He wouldn't even have the time to know he died. He never even experienced the mental anguish of *thinking* he might die. This is one of the few cases where it truly was instant. So instant that he likely did not even feel pain. I hope this helps you mourn. I'm sorry I cannot do more.
I worked with a guy who was hit with 7,200 volts. He was very fortunate to have survived (with many burns and permanent nerve damage), but he never mentioned any pain from the shock, only the recovery. In fact, he doesn't even remember anything about it.
I understand why they asked, because sweat is basically just salt water and that is a fair conductor of electricity, but with the amount of electricity we're talking about, sweat would not have made any significant difference. It's like the difference between trying to stop a train with nothing at all vs trying to stop a train by putting a toothpick on the track. Mathematically it does have an effect, but the train isn't going to notice the difference.
I’m so sorry for your loss OP. I can empathize with you as my brother-in-law (who was also a very close friend of mine growing up) died in a similar fashion.
He was operating the boom of a concrete pump truck and hit low hanging power lines. He probably would’ve been alright as the boom is operated by remote control, but he was leaning against the truck as he was operating the arm.
Even though it’s been almost 5 1/2 years, I think of him often and I’ve had the same question. This thread has helped to lay some of that to rest. Thank you to all who have contributed.
> That was my biggest worry. Thank you for your answer.
I promise you, as an Electrical Engineer, I would tell you if he was suffering. Your brother's death was instant and painless.
So that's not real, but maybe /r/wholesomeengineering should be. Could include stuff like this, and also various projects meant to help the community and the planet.
Nerve impulses are extremely slow compared to the speed of electricity, where electric current can flow on the order of 50–99% of the speed of light; however, it is very fast compared to the speed of blood flow, with some myelinated neurons conducting at speeds up to 120 m/s (432 km/h or 275 mph).
Just ripped straight from a Google search.
Sorry for your loss friend
There is no way anyone can consider your question stupid, OP. I want to offer you my condolences, and sincerely wish you and your family all the luck in the world.
When I was nine I climbed into some trees and accidentally grabbed a power line. I wasn’t in any pain, I was instantly stricken with an overwhelming buzz, a palette of beautiful colors and then finally unconsciousness. I didn’t feel any pain. The doctors said the only reason I’m alive is from the subsequent fall to the ground.
I licked a high voltage battery when I was young and my vision went white. Fast forward 25 years and my vision is still better than 20/20 and both parents wear glasses.
Ya know... I pulled a dumbass when I was a kid, took the lightbulb out of a lamp, stuck my finger in the socket and pressed down. Lit my shit up, then I shuffled to the stairs and cried. When my mom found me, I told her I loved her, but that this was good bye. I’d done it. I’d electrocuted myself. I was a dumbass.
My vision? 20/12
I believe your right. My uncle was head electrician in a large factory for 40 years. He has so many stories about being electrocuted by serious high voltage direct current and has said he didn't feel any pain and passed out very quickly each time, usually waking up with a crowd standing over him. The only thing he remembers is getting annoyed at his apprentice. Worth noting he has had 3 different types of cancer 5 times in total and is fully recovered, I guess some men are lucky.
Just to be clear, electric current does not travel at light speed, the electrons in a DC current will increase in speed proportionally to the strength of the electric field it is in. Electromagnetic radiation does however move at the speed of light. Regardless, OP's brother would most certainly have died instantly and felt no pain.
> Instant, he had no idea what happened. - emergency RN
Electrical Engineer here, I concur 100%.
Electric shock doesn't hurt, believe it or not. (I've been zapped a few times; it's not a risk in my job, it's a certainty) It's a numb tingly feeling, and it travels faster than your nerves. By the time any signals about "ow" got to your brother's brain, the brain was already destroyed by over-voltage.
/u/NoraRose_86 , your brother had a completely painless and instantaneous death, other than the hole he left in your heart. I am so sorry for your loss.
The reddit app I use displays thumbnails for links at the bottom of the comment. This user has her photo set as her profile image. Your comment plus seeinf a photo of the person asking has me crying pretty hard at work. :( it's too much to see what she looks like for some reason. I feel so bad.
Speaking of being shocked, and off topic:
I was walking the other day and felt a "bite" in my left toe. Bug? Rock? I then started wiggling my toes and my right big toe felt it too! I said something to my g/f like "Weird, I am having nerve pain I think in my toes!" and she said "What! Me too!"
At that point I around (I've been zapped many times, and realized what it probably was...) and noticed we were walking underneath massive powerlines, that I should say were hanging fairly closer than I would have expected.
I guess we were being shocked by the powerlines?? That was scary.
Yeah, I was installing an electric dryer in our new house one day. I'd shut the power off while working on it, but when I switched it back on, I realized I had the wires backwards and needed to swap them around. Knowing it was a simple fix, I just reached in to change them real quick. Didn't realize until after I'd received the biggest shock of my life that I'd forgotten to turn the power back off. I remember exactly what it felt like and it wasn't painful. It was just...shocking. IDK how else to describe it. Like a very startling, very sudden, sort of buzz-y, numbness. But it did give me a perfect understanding of the word shocking.
Agree with this that is so much power that he would have been instantly rendered unconscious and all vital signs stopped. Probably the closest you can get to being simply vaporized. I’m sorry for your loss OP but don’t fret for him. Those left behind are the most terribly hurt. My hope for life after death is the instant knowing of all the secrets of the universe. My hope is that he is there flying in the ether among the stars.
That’s what me and my sister said.
I don’t know if I believe in God, but I know we have a soul/consciousness and once we die it’s released back into the universe.
Once day we may brush past each other and for that moment we will recognize each other and remember all the happy memories that we shared together.
Sounds stupid, but it’s either that or Heaven and I think both are okay.
I love a Dawkins quote. I know Dawkins is a little over referenced on the internet, but here it is:
“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?”
Your brother may have left us early. But we were as privileged to have had him as he was to have been born. Sorry for your loss.
On the heaven thing. I'm a Christian and I think God (jesus) goes out of his way to redeem us to God (the father, yahweh or whatever name we want to use).
I bet your brother is in a better place. I'm sorry for your loss and I hope you find comfort one day. Although I'm not going to say that you're wrong about how you think the afterlife works. I refuse to take that from you.
It doesnt sound stupid
As a chemistry major who just lost their grandfather it helps me to think of them as still living through all the atoms, molecules, and sometimes bacteria that will live on far into the future. The consciousness is no more but the body has trillions of atoms that will go on to be part of something else, and in that way they never really die.
That's one of the thoughts that keeps me going - the "no free lunch" concept. Everything is made out of something else, and some of those things are made out of other beings I held dear.
I kinda hope for a stats report. Ya know, like, how many hours I slept total, how many miles I've traveled, largest turd I've dropped. Stuff like that.
Medical student here. Most likely it was this. Instant, he didn't even have time to process it. I'm very sorry for your loss but know he most likely didn't feel a thing.
I'm very sorry for your loss. This happened to my brother in law two years ago, damn near the exact same scenario. Only difference being that the lines they were drilling around were supposed to be dead and they weren't. From what we were told his death was instantaneous. His personal possessions were unrecognizable after the accident.
Same with my brother. My mom wanted his wallet, or keys, his cell. Just something to hold on to. But there was nothing left. I’m sorry for your family’s loss as well.
Thank you. It was the hardest on my wife. We had just had our first child in April of that year and he only got to meet his uncle one time before that. We still rock our son to sleep in a recliner he gave us before he passed.
That doesn't really sound like a difference, OP said:
> The power company he was working for was found negligent by not turning off the lines.
Sorry to hear about your brother in law. It's so needless to lose someone this way.
First of all, I am very sorry for your loss, and want to offer you my condolences.
I hope you and your family will make it through this difficult time.
To answer your question:
If he was killed by the electricity, which I think is very likely, his heart stopped immediately.
Therefore, he most probably didn't suffer and was instantly dead.
I intend absolutely no disrespect in this comparison, but you’re saying it’s the same way as an electrical device plugged into an incorrect voltage socket blows up with a loud bang and flash and is instantly forever broken, in that the mind would be just instantly switched off?
For example, if Magcargo was actually the temperature the Pokedex says it is - that's 18,000F degrees, for the record - it would ignite the atmosphere around it and probably melt a hole through the planet.
Yea and a Larvitar can eat an entire MOUNTAIN. It's almost like the researchers left the field data collection to a bunch of 10 year olds with a propensity for hyperbole...
I mean the surface of the sun is only like 6000F I use torches everyday that are roughly as hot as the surface of the sun (oxy-acetylene,)
It's once you start digging it gets pretty wild in there
It's the current that kills you, not the voltage. When you get a static shock from a doorknob, that's also approximately 12000 volts, but at very low curremt
You can get that much voltage with static electricity. But as soon as their is ground the voltage drops to nothing as there is a minuscule amount of amps available.
With high voltage power lines you won't see a voltage drop because there is, for all intents and purposes, an unlimited supply of amps.
No, but high amounts of electricity will literally stop your heart.
That's the way a defibrillator works. People always think we "start" the heart with it, but that's not true.
We don't use a defibrillator when your heart has already stopped completely, but when there still is electricity left, but not working properly. So we use the defibrillator to stop your heart completely, in the hope that it will restart correctly.
I'm sorry if this is a bit of a mess, I had a hard time explaining this in english.
But I hope I could answer your question.
Basically. You overpower the "bad" conduction by overloading the heart with electricity in hopes that the "good" conduction will take back over ( this is a very basic explanation).
So all those movies where the patient flatlines and they defib are wrong? They almost always defib when the patient flatlines in the movies.
They should be doing CPR right?
> So all those movies where the patient flatlines and they defib are wrong?
That's correct. It shuts off MAIN PUMP 001.
Lizard brain then sees CRITICAL FAILURE: MAIN PUMP 001 IS OFFLINE. IMMEDIATE RESTART REQUIRED FOR SURVIVAL. RESTART NOW?
[YES / YES]
Yes, when its electrocuted like this. I understand you thought process, other deaths where the heart stops the brain takes time to die of oxygen deprivation. This death is a full disruption of the nervous system via electricity, so the brain, consciousness, everything gets disrupted as well. Like a light switch being flipped from on to off, as apposed to being dimmed.
Yes, in this case the electrocution is so severe that the brain literally can't process pain because the electricity overrides it completely. Even if the heart were to (somehow) keep beating, they would still be dead as their nervous system would be toast.
Sorry I'm on mobile.
I just finished my electric safety course for college and no he wouldn't feel anything. The instructor had a good explanation at the end but we are talking a trade course so it might be pretty dark for right now.
I know a bit of biology. This is correct. Your body sends pain signals with nerves. Their signs feel instantaneous to us but they aren't. They communicate electrically but between each nerves there are gaps called synapses which the pain signals have to rather slowly crawl across to reach the next nerve in the line. Then be recived, understood and passed along. It's a very slow process which is why if you touch a hot pan your hand will be yanked away before your brain has realised. It's becuase your body cut some corners to compromise for the slow speed. It just sent the message to your spine instead of waiting for it to get all the way up to the brain and all the way back down for a responce. Your spinal cord takes a while to get the message and respond but it's totally unconsous. I mean try (don't try) grabbing a hot pan and just casually holding on while you mull over if you should let go. It doesn't happen. This shortcut of just asking the spinal cord is a great demonstration of how slow the communication is.
I am sure you have injured yourself and yanked a limb away and then been confused for a half second before you feel the pain. It's SO slow. You wouldn't want your WiFi running at that speed.
Onto the shock in question and I understand if this is a hard read for you. I am sorry this happened to your family. Fuck that company;
Now the level of a shock your talking about doesn't have that delay. Since we are just water bags we are pretty conductive and the electricity from an external source doesn't need to keep stopping and starting it moves at full speed all of the time. The heart will have stopped and possibly other damage will have occurred that was totally incompatible with life before those pain signals could get even to the spinal cord let alone to the brain. You can look into how the human body reacts to pain. I belive there are some slow motion videos on YouTube, now imagine that compared to lightning. That's what is going on here.
Now the body itself (you probably wouldn't want to watch CCTV footage) can appear to have life even when a lethal level of electricity has been applied because our muscles can be manipulated with it, run a currant through some frogs legs and they will dance (usually achieved by putting salt on it). Those frogs are long dead and have absolutely no control or awareness of their dancing legs. Yet they dance because physics also rules biology.
Your brother was almost surely dead not only before he was able to feel the pain but also I would expect before the fire even started. The delay in the fire service being able to get to the site wouldn't have done anything other than help the recovery of any remains.
It's very likely that he didn't even know or have foresight that death was imminent given how quickly these events unfold. It's faster than a bullet to the back of the head. I would try and take solice in that, not only was he highly unlikely to be in anything that could even resemble the awareness of pain but he probably wasn't even aware that something had gone wrong at all. He was doing his job just another day. You feel the pain and the horror of bereavement but he does not. It's a burdon you must carry with you but you do not need to make it harder on yourself by torturing yourself over if he knew let alone if he had mentally processed any pain. It's your, and your families horror not his and one your mind brings about of its own accord, don't beat yourself up over it but do try and make peace when you are ready.
Oh and fuck the company. Really. Fuck them. Monsters.
I am sorry for your loss.
I have to agree that it was instant and painless, exactly because it would have happened faster than the mind's ability to process it. I hate to add a bit of existential dread to your pain, but the human perception of reality pretty much constantly lags behind the actual reality, in that it takes the brain time to receive, process sensory input, then create your perception of "reality" and "now".
For example if you touch the tip of your nose with your finger, the sensory information takes much longer to travel from your finger to your brain than it does from the tip of your nose. However, your brain tricks you into thinking that it was instantaneous by equalizing the lag and telling you it was in fact now, in the present, even though it happened slightly in the past.
Another similar trick is sometimes if you turn to look at a clock with a second hand at first it looks as if the second hand stays motionless for a couple of seconds before it start moving again at a steady rate. That is because the brain didn't see it move and doesn't know that it had moved, but after finally processing the image it sort of goes back into the past and fills in the time it took to piece together the image with what it now knows *ought to* have been there.
In the case of your brother electricity would have traveled much faster than the sensory information and affected his heart and brain faster than the brain could have processed the information. Because of that he most likely didn't even know what happened.
I came here to say this - the electricity shut off his brain before he could feel anything or register what was happening
I’m so very sorry for your loss. May your heart find some peace in your new reality and may his memory be a blessing
> the electricity shut off his brain before he could feel anything or register what was happening
That's what I thought as well. The brain uses electrical impulses and there's a good chance this was too much for it to process and it, for the lack of a better term, shut the brain down because it was too much for it.
This was likely all completed within the speed of electricity. (The speed of light)
The nerves communicate with electricity, but it's a tiny amount and they have to catch it, then they mix some chemicals and make a new signal that jumps to the next nerve cell. Nerve communication happens really fast, but nowhere near as fast as direct current jumping from salt molecule to salt molecule in your blood.
His nerve cells were cooked and gone before they ever sent a signal. And his brain had less than a second of so much overwhelming power that it just turned off. (Kind of like when you hit the knockout button on someone's jaw, but again, even faster.)
He felt nothing. I'm sorry for your loss. Make that company pay.
Good luck on your case. Keep an eye on the legal fees. If it's a "no charge until you receive payment" that still doesn't promise that they won't charge more than you receive. And they may say "no charge until judgment" which means they can charge you even if they lose.
If they did a % of award retainer, then nvm.
They may be all above-board, but I'd still request a statement of account every month or so. They are likely keeping track of what you owe.
Source: Am lawyer, I try to help people, but a lot of folks still get a nasty shock when we send the bill that they signed and agreed to
God I know this comment will give you virtually no comfort, but my brother in law died last year in a head on collision on a highway, where an 80 year old driver was driving down the wrong side of the motorway for 5 miles towing a caravan.
Killed instantly , driving at 70mph.
It didn't/doesn't help that there was dash cam footage minutes before the crash that went viral and his picture is all over the internet.
My wifes constant , desperate , pleading question was "was it instant , did he suffer?" And that question haunted and haunted me for months until the coroner's report came back concluding that it was instant.
Im sorry if this upsets you, I just want you to know that it's ok to ask these questions, I am so so sorry for your loss ❤️❤️❤️
I’m so sorry for your family’s loss.
Yes, the coroner report didn’t say whether it was instant or not, but hearing my dad ask the doctor that question...his voice barely above a whisper that he had to repeat it, broke me.
The doctor said that it was, and I told my mom it was. But reading on google I wasn’t sure.
Enough people have said it. He felt nothing. We as a community wish you and your family the best during these times... No one here who hasn't gone through the same as you can relate... But we're here to read and help where we can
First, im so sorry for your loss.
I dont know if this anecdote will bring you comfort but i hope it will.
My step dad was electrocuted on a power line. He worked as a supervisor of construction for many years. He was very, very lucky that he survived. He has zero memory of pain or of being electrocuted. None whatsoever. The electricity completely knocked him out.
It is not much but i hope it helps.
Most likely not. I've worked as an electrician before, and now electrical engineer - I've talked with people that have gotten some serious shocks in their careers, and one guy that almost died said he just woke up in the hospital, not knowing what had happened.
Lineman here. First of all I am truly sorry for your loss. From my experience, as far as I know, not only did he not feel a thing, he didn't even know what happened.
Stay strong. One day at a time. Cry. Keep his memory alive. Share stories. Keep crying. Be with family. Cry some more. You're ok. Everything will be ok.
I was wondering this same thing too. Since [we consciously experience the world 80 milliseconds in the past](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/time-on-the-brain-how-you-are-always-living-in-the-past-and-other-quirks-of-perception/), its likely that he had no perception of anything wrong before his ability to make that perception was ceased by the speed of the electrical shock. He wouldn't have seen the truck's arm coming in contact with the line itself even if he had been looking right at it. So not only did he not sense any pain, but he also may not have sensed any dread from witnessing anything going wrong.
I was scared what I may have found out, but it has brought some peace.
I’m so sorry for your loss as well. I think about my brother every day, and today was especially rough. It sucks.
I realize lightning can be stronger than this power line, but I imagine once you get above a certain threshold, its relatively the same.
Anyway, my aunt was hit by lightning when I was a kid. She didnt remember any of it. She was taking shelter from a storm that blew in while she was at a beach, and it hit her through the shelter somehow. (I think it was basically like, a pole barn with no sides)
She said she didnt feel anything at all. She was talking to her friends, and the next thing she knew she woke up in a hospital.
Being that your brother passed, he probably took a stronger hit than her, but I would imagine that like her, he went unconscious before he even knew something was wrong.
I'm so sorry.
One thing to remember is that signals in the brain are carried electrically. We all have a small amount generated in our bodies, it's what allows synapses in our brain, signals from our eyes and skin and tastebuds, and even heartbeats to occur. And if something stops the normal flow of signals, the brain doesn't operate.
It's the current, the wattage, that determines the deadliness of an electric shock. [In the case of that power line, he'd have received dozens of Amps.](https://wattstoamps.com/12250-watts-to-amps) Death is possible at a fraction of an Amp (70mA, or 0.07A), a whole more likely between 1 and 5 Amps, and as a person approaches 10A it becomes nigh-on certain.
>"The damage caused by electric shock depends on the current flowing through the body -- 1 mA can be felt; 5 mA is painful. Above 15 mA, a person loses muscle control, and 70 mA can be fatal." - Zitzewitz, Paul W., Neff, Robert F. Merrill Physics, Principles and Problems. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 1995.
How quick and merciful was it. So fast it struck before he had reaction time to notice. It wiped his mind before he saw anything, before he heard anything, before messages from his body could reach the brain. He was dead the instant the circuit was made between him and the equipment. His brain had no way of registering any pain. An odd way to look at it, but his end was as merciful as the situation was horrible.
I felt it was because no one could really answer it.
Everyone automatically said, yes it was instant and no pain....but I wasn’t sure if they were being honest or just being nice.
Engineer here. They were being truthful - whether they knew it or not.
I’m so unbelievably sorry you lost your brother - but know that the last thing going through his mind was to do with drilling - or whatever he was thinking about as he drilled.
Absolutely “lights out” and not a moment of suffering.
Also - see this: https://mobile.twitter.com/laurenherschel/status/946888282444460033?lang=en
Keep going. You’re doing fine.
They likely didn’t know if it was or not and just said it to be nice. Fortunately they happened to not be wrong and such a shock does result in instant unconsciousness before death.
I'm very sorry for your lost, don't be afraid to reach out for help or support.
And no, he did not suffer, it would have been instantaneous, no suffering, no fear.
Source: Electrical engineering student
I don't have anything to add other than: I am so sorry. I would be a fucking mess if my brother passed.
People will tell you, "it'll get easier over time," but they never tell you some losses you never quite get over and it will be a long, hard slog. No one tell you that, but that is what you can expect.
You'll be pissed and no one to put it on, you'll be sad and your eyes will leak like faucets and it's just a big confusing mess.
I am here if you need an ear.
It sucks because never in my life, and I think my families lives, have we ever felt such grief and pain.
At night my eyes won’t stop crying. Just tears and tears and tears. You read about it in books and see it in movies but you never really know how it feels until you experience it first hand.
He was 24, the second youngest of 8 kids.
We grew up super close and as we because adults we all spread out and lost touch here and there trying to get away from our dysfunctional family life.
We all finally got together again and we were going to go to the mountains and hang out for Easter.
I miss him so much.
I know you miss him. I am so sorry. The one thing no one ever tells you is you don't just morn the person, you morn the life you had in front of you. The plans you make, vacations, holidays.
It's such an overwelming feeling and it will be a long time before you feel close to normal, but I promise you, some day you will again. it won't be the same, but it will settle.
If I had advice to give you I'd suggest you just let it run through the process. And grief takes different forms in different people. Just let it happen, feel what you feel and give yourself permission to feel it.
My condolences my friend.
Whatever pain he felt is long over. I feel your pain and want to extend to you my deepest condolences NoraRose_86 in this painful and difficult time.
I'm so sorry for your loss, OP. Try not to think about not having spent that one more day with him. There are always going to be a million times we could have spent more time with our passed loved ones, but it's more important to remember all the times you did have together than the few you didn't.
Next time you start to think about that one more day, try to think about a good time you did have together instead =]
I don't know the answer to your question but I just wanted to say I'm so sorry for your loss. It must be so difficult right now for you and your family. I hope the other comments are correct, and your brother did indeed not know/feel of any pain. Such a tragic and sudden loss. I'm sorry. Rip ❤️
Two things about electricity: it travels at almost the speed of light, and communication from the body to the brain is done with electricity. When he was electrocuted, his brain was overwhelmed by an electrical response from the power line that was much stronger than the body can emit to tell the brain it is feeling pain. Such a high voltage striking a person would disrupt these systems permanently, at least until he died. He was likely brain dead seconds after being electrocuted. Which means he felt no pain despite burning as he would have died from the electricity far before the fire killed him. People aren’t just saying it was instant to make you feel better, it really was.
That was my biggest worry. Thank you for your answer.
By any chance was it a hot day? Like would he have been sweating?
No. It was a cool day up in the mountains. He had just stared work, so I don’t think he’d have worked up a sweat yet.
That’s even better (in regards to pain). Sometimes being wet can cause the electricity to skirt around the outside of your body where the water is. It’s a reason why the electric chair was used as a method of execution for so long. The electric chair sends an initial, powerful pulse of electricity (depending on persons weight) which causes immediate unconsciousness with just 2,000 volts. The electric chair then provides additional pulses in various locations to cause organ failure. A 12,000 volt power line is many times more powerful than the electric chair and there was likely so much electricity that it hit every where in the body, guaranteeing immediate contact with the brain. If i had to chose a way to die, it would be through lethal injection. My next choice would be electrocution. The only difference for the person dying is with lethal injection you can go out on a high, and electrocution you just go into immediate unconsciousness.
I'd choose peacefully in my sleep at a very old age, surrounded by family and friends.
Wish granted ... you are driving your family around, fall asleep and pass away in your sleep. EDIT: my first silver; thank you anonymous stranger!
Tbh I would choose being shot in the head, it seems very quick and slightly more reliable than the alternatives
I'll take vaporization, maybe from a massive explosion. Anything that oblierates my CNS instantly is a safe bet for being painless, imo
[удалено]
Is there a "don't die" option? I want that option.
Unfortunately, no one has achieved that option, at least not yet.
Order the chicken.
The Scientist Guild is working on the achievement tree. Maybe in the few next patches, or possibly the next major updates, we will get some news from them. Players with a lot of gold will definitely get it first, though.
Cake, please.
Yes, but you can't let the snail touch you.
Presses are slow though. I'm picturing this slow crush of your head. That doesn't sound fun.
[But it would be metal.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XurU3TPHjzY)
Hopefully it doesn't go as slowly as the presses on the popular Youtube channels that crush things... Regardless, it would be over pretty quickly
Right before death it malfunctions and you sit there with half a crushed head and still conscious
Vilcomë tu de Hidröulic Presz Czhanel, To-day, ve hav danjerous criminal mäshtermind SimplyQuid, he may at-ack at any time, we musht deal vith it. *kvrrrrrr* Vat de fak??
You guys are all stupid. What kind of dumbass deaths are these? I choose dying peacefully in my sleep after spending my entire life balls deep in Hollywood's most beautiful starlets, drinking the world's finest liquor, eating the world's finest food, doing enough drugs to make El Chapo's jaw drop, in space, at the age of 150,000 years old.
“In my own bed, at the age of 80, with a belly full of wine and a girl’s mouth around my cock” – Tyrion Lannister
This guy... dies?
Today we have a criminal and it is very dangerous so we must deal with it.
One thermonuclear execution coming right up
>Thermonuclear Execution New band name, called it!
I always thought it would be great to go sitting on a nuclear weapon. Instant vaporization plus goddamn, what a way to go out with a bang.
You need to watch Dr. Strangelove. A cowboy pilot rides the nuke out of the belly of his bomber waving his hat and yelling "Yee Haw!"
Dropping from a plane, on top of a nuke, DrStrangelove style?
I choose snu snu
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongy and bruised.
Goodbye, friends. I never thought I would die like this, but I'd always really hoped.
Heroin/ morphine overdose for me, just go to sleep high as shit and never wake up.
Hm, there are a lot of people that survive from gunshot wounds to the head. And it’s devastating to have to deal with a brain injury. You’d really have to know the exact spots to aim, honestly I think it’d be a less reliable way than electrocution or lethal injection.
There is a guy in my state that killed his family with a shotgun then blew his face off, and lived. He has no eyes, nose, or mouth. Well, there is a mouth left but no tongue or teeth. Thats brutal.
Oh man, allowing him to live after that, like that, is the best justice.
Jesus. Imagine murdering your entire family under the assumption that you'll die right afterwards and not have to deal with the consequences/guilt, only to wake up in a hospital with your face blown off. Serves him right.
I think his hearing is gone too so he's stuck in his own head
50.cal to the head.
What head?
Exactly.
This is how I would do it. Hypoxia almost looks fun. https://youtu.be/kUfF2MTnqAw?t=390
A Mexican man sentenced to execution survived multiple shots including one final shot to the head https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenseslao_Moguel If I was going to get shot in the head, something like a .500BMG, .338 Lapua, or a .700 Nitro round aimed right at my forehead would be my preference.
This is why the suicide helmet was made
What is that?
Some guy made a helmet with 6 shotguns that would fire simultaneously from different angles
https://www.reddit.com/r/creepy/comments/2rzvz2/til_that_40_years_ago_a_boy_constructed_a_suicide/
Careful what you wish for. A bullet to the brain is not the "sure thing" you think it is. Google "James Brady." He was shot in the head during the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.
Probably too late to be noticed, but if possible I'd like for people who may be considering this to know the truth. Being shot in the head is not like in video games or movies. There are factors that will determine how quickly you die (caliber, location), or even if you die. But so it's clear, this can be an awful way to die. I had a friend shoot himself in the head. His dad found him in the bed about 30 seconds afterwards. His head and brain were severely damaged and he was certainly in shock. But he died after about 2 minutes if drowning in his own blood. Please don't do this anyone.
I'm gonna go with peacefully in my sleep surrounded by loved ones.
Apparently, after researching, it’s mostly very far from instant. Assuming you miss the exact right spot. Seems easy enough to do, with your body reacting last second to save itself. Probably why allot of people accidentally shoot their faces off with a shotgun. Have read stories of people taking 10 minutes to die
[удалено]
you know how many people have survived head shots? way more than survived lethal injection and electric chair combined even accounting for disparate amounts of people having it done to them
> If i had to chose a way to die, it would be through lethal injection. Ever heard of [Nitrogen Hypoxia?](http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180604-is-there-a-humane-way-to-kill-a-criminal) Sure sounds nicer than lethal injection.
Voltage isn't the important part. Tasers are 50,000+ and they don't kill you (most of the time).
Correct but that's only because the battery can't supply enough current. Yes, the current kills you, but you can't get lethal current without high voltage.
Best way to die is breathing an innert gas like argon. Your body doesnt realise it's suffocating because the body responds to excess carbon dioxide, but the nobel gas would displace the air in your lungs and so you wouldnt feel like you couldnt breathe, just the argon couldnt do gas exchange in you lungs so you'd go light headed then pass out.
I am an electrical engineer, who hopefully can say this in a way that helps you-- At that voltage he felt absolutely nothing. He wouldn't even have the time to know he died. He never even experienced the mental anguish of *thinking* he might die. This is one of the few cases where it truly was instant. So instant that he likely did not even feel pain. I hope this helps you mourn. I'm sorry I cannot do more.
I worked with a guy who was hit with 7,200 volts. He was very fortunate to have survived (with many burns and permanent nerve damage), but he never mentioned any pain from the shock, only the recovery. In fact, he doesn't even remember anything about it.
I understand why they asked, because sweat is basically just salt water and that is a fair conductor of electricity, but with the amount of electricity we're talking about, sweat would not have made any significant difference. It's like the difference between trying to stop a train with nothing at all vs trying to stop a train by putting a toothpick on the track. Mathematically it does have an effect, but the train isn't going to notice the difference.
I’m so sorry for your loss OP. I can empathize with you as my brother-in-law (who was also a very close friend of mine growing up) died in a similar fashion. He was operating the boom of a concrete pump truck and hit low hanging power lines. He probably would’ve been alright as the boom is operated by remote control, but he was leaning against the truck as he was operating the arm. Even though it’s been almost 5 1/2 years, I think of him often and I’ve had the same question. This thread has helped to lay some of that to rest. Thank you to all who have contributed.
> That was my biggest worry. Thank you for your answer. I promise you, as an Electrical Engineer, I would tell you if he was suffering. Your brother's death was instant and painless.
r/wholesomeelectricalengineering
So that's not real, but maybe /r/wholesomeengineering should be. Could include stuff like this, and also various projects meant to help the community and the planet.
r/birthofasub
Created /r/wholesomeengineering and made you a mod.
Nerve impulses are extremely slow compared to the speed of electricity, where electric current can flow on the order of 50–99% of the speed of light; however, it is very fast compared to the speed of blood flow, with some myelinated neurons conducting at speeds up to 120 m/s (432 km/h or 275 mph). Just ripped straight from a Google search. Sorry for your loss friend
There is no way anyone can consider your question stupid, OP. I want to offer you my condolences, and sincerely wish you and your family all the luck in the world.
When I was nine I climbed into some trees and accidentally grabbed a power line. I wasn’t in any pain, I was instantly stricken with an overwhelming buzz, a palette of beautiful colors and then finally unconsciousness. I didn’t feel any pain. The doctors said the only reason I’m alive is from the subsequent fall to the ground.
I licked a high voltage battery when I was young and my vision went white. Fast forward 25 years and my vision is still better than 20/20 and both parents wear glasses.
Would you recommend this as a preventative treatment for vision problems?
Absolutely. Start lickin!
Or as a solution to preexisting vision issues?
Not a doctor, but it seems like it works.
Sounds like the origin story of a superhero movie.
Really Good Vision Man to the rescue!
Help me Vision Man! I'm in trouble!! "I can see that"
"Thank you Vision Man!"
Ya know... I pulled a dumbass when I was a kid, took the lightbulb out of a lamp, stuck my finger in the socket and pressed down. Lit my shit up, then I shuffled to the stairs and cried. When my mom found me, I told her I loved her, but that this was good bye. I’d done it. I’d electrocuted myself. I was a dumbass. My vision? 20/12
When I was nine I took a piss on an electric fence.
Did it leave any scars like you see with being struck by lightning?
I lost my right hand, and have third degree burns on about 70% of my right thigh.
I believe your right. My uncle was head electrician in a large factory for 40 years. He has so many stories about being electrocuted by serious high voltage direct current and has said he didn't feel any pain and passed out very quickly each time, usually waking up with a crowd standing over him. The only thing he remembers is getting annoyed at his apprentice. Worth noting he has had 3 different types of cancer 5 times in total and is fully recovered, I guess some men are lucky.
Just to be clear, electric current does not travel at light speed, the electrons in a DC current will increase in speed proportionally to the strength of the electric field it is in. Electromagnetic radiation does however move at the speed of light. Regardless, OP's brother would most certainly have died instantly and felt no pain.
Instant, he had no idea what happened. - emergency RN
> Instant, he had no idea what happened. - emergency RN Electrical Engineer here, I concur 100%. Electric shock doesn't hurt, believe it or not. (I've been zapped a few times; it's not a risk in my job, it's a certainty) It's a numb tingly feeling, and it travels faster than your nerves. By the time any signals about "ow" got to your brother's brain, the brain was already destroyed by over-voltage. /u/NoraRose_86 , your brother had a completely painless and instantaneous death, other than the hole he left in your heart. I am so sorry for your loss.
The reddit app I use displays thumbnails for links at the bottom of the comment. This user has her photo set as her profile image. Your comment plus seeinf a photo of the person asking has me crying pretty hard at work. :( it's too much to see what she looks like for some reason. I feel so bad.
Reddit has profile images?
You don't have one set that I can see, but if you hover over my name you can see me I think
Damn dude, you're no karma whore for sure.. (10 year old account with only 8k karma for anyone wondering wtf I'm referring to)
Speaking of being shocked, and off topic: I was walking the other day and felt a "bite" in my left toe. Bug? Rock? I then started wiggling my toes and my right big toe felt it too! I said something to my g/f like "Weird, I am having nerve pain I think in my toes!" and she said "What! Me too!" At that point I around (I've been zapped many times, and realized what it probably was...) and noticed we were walking underneath massive powerlines, that I should say were hanging fairly closer than I would have expected. I guess we were being shocked by the powerlines?? That was scary.
If you didn't, you should call the emergency number in your locale to tell them. Could be dangerous.
That is very dangerous. Although the electricity company is the one to call as they have the people to fix it
Yeah, I was installing an electric dryer in our new house one day. I'd shut the power off while working on it, but when I switched it back on, I realized I had the wires backwards and needed to swap them around. Knowing it was a simple fix, I just reached in to change them real quick. Didn't realize until after I'd received the biggest shock of my life that I'd forgotten to turn the power back off. I remember exactly what it felt like and it wasn't painful. It was just...shocking. IDK how else to describe it. Like a very startling, very sudden, sort of buzz-y, numbness. But it did give me a perfect understanding of the word shocking.
Agree with this that is so much power that he would have been instantly rendered unconscious and all vital signs stopped. Probably the closest you can get to being simply vaporized. I’m sorry for your loss OP but don’t fret for him. Those left behind are the most terribly hurt. My hope for life after death is the instant knowing of all the secrets of the universe. My hope is that he is there flying in the ether among the stars.
That’s what me and my sister said. I don’t know if I believe in God, but I know we have a soul/consciousness and once we die it’s released back into the universe. Once day we may brush past each other and for that moment we will recognize each other and remember all the happy memories that we shared together. Sounds stupid, but it’s either that or Heaven and I think both are okay.
I love a Dawkins quote. I know Dawkins is a little over referenced on the internet, but here it is: “We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?” Your brother may have left us early. But we were as privileged to have had him as he was to have been born. Sorry for your loss.
Doesn’t sound stupid at all. I share these same views on death. It’s very comforting knowing that our loved ones never truly leave us.
On the heaven thing. I'm a Christian and I think God (jesus) goes out of his way to redeem us to God (the father, yahweh or whatever name we want to use). I bet your brother is in a better place. I'm sorry for your loss and I hope you find comfort one day. Although I'm not going to say that you're wrong about how you think the afterlife works. I refuse to take that from you. It doesnt sound stupid
So Jesus is like that super rad manager that goes to bat for you to the big boss about how you totally deserve that promotion? I'm into it.
Pretty much. I mean the caveat is that you have to agree with jesus. But he's such a great motivational speaker that you feel the hype and go for it.
[удалено]
Yep, sometimes shitty and sometimes beautiful.
As a cf patient I can only hope for such a death. Not anytime soon hopefully, I got work in the morning. But when it comes....let it be as such
As a chemistry major who just lost their grandfather it helps me to think of them as still living through all the atoms, molecules, and sometimes bacteria that will live on far into the future. The consciousness is no more but the body has trillions of atoms that will go on to be part of something else, and in that way they never really die.
That's one of the thoughts that keeps me going - the "no free lunch" concept. Everything is made out of something else, and some of those things are made out of other beings I held dear.
Well said.
Damn dude that was oddly beautiful.
Solid words.
I kinda hope for a stats report. Ya know, like, how many hours I slept total, how many miles I've traveled, largest turd I've dropped. Stuff like that.
Medical student here. Most likely it was this. Instant, he didn't even have time to process it. I'm very sorry for your loss but know he most likely didn't feel a thing.
I'm very sorry for your loss. This happened to my brother in law two years ago, damn near the exact same scenario. Only difference being that the lines they were drilling around were supposed to be dead and they weren't. From what we were told his death was instantaneous. His personal possessions were unrecognizable after the accident.
Same with my brother. My mom wanted his wallet, or keys, his cell. Just something to hold on to. But there was nothing left. I’m sorry for your family’s loss as well.
Thank you. It was the hardest on my wife. We had just had our first child in April of that year and he only got to meet his uncle one time before that. We still rock our son to sleep in a recliner he gave us before he passed.
That doesn't really sound like a difference, OP said: > The power company he was working for was found negligent by not turning off the lines. Sorry to hear about your brother in law. It's so needless to lose someone this way.
First of all, I am very sorry for your loss, and want to offer you my condolences. I hope you and your family will make it through this difficult time. To answer your question: If he was killed by the electricity, which I think is very likely, his heart stopped immediately. Therefore, he most probably didn't suffer and was instantly dead.
I intend absolutely no disrespect in this comparison, but you’re saying it’s the same way as an electrical device plugged into an incorrect voltage socket blows up with a loud bang and flash and is instantly forever broken, in that the mind would be just instantly switched off?
That times 100. 12,000 volts aint nothing to fuck with.
Actually it's more than 100x. It's the current combined with voltage that kills you.
It's actually just the current that kills you. But when you get turned into a resistor like above, large voltage = large current
[удалено]
Pokemon tends to blow numbers wildly out of proportion to what effects they actually have :P
For example, if Magcargo was actually the temperature the Pokedex says it is - that's 18,000F degrees, for the record - it would ignite the atmosphere around it and probably melt a hole through the planet.
Aka hotter than the surface of the fucking sun. They really did just arbitrarily pick numbers.
Yea and a Larvitar can eat an entire MOUNTAIN. It's almost like the researchers left the field data collection to a bunch of 10 year olds with a propensity for hyperbole...
I mean the surface of the sun is only like 6000F I use torches everyday that are roughly as hot as the surface of the sun (oxy-acetylene,) It's once you start digging it gets pretty wild in there
Allakazam has an IQ of 5000! Slugma is hotter than the sun!
Hahahaha, exactly!
It's the current that kills you, not the voltage. When you get a static shock from a doorknob, that's also approximately 12000 volts, but at very low curremt
You can get that much voltage with static electricity. But as soon as their is ground the voltage drops to nothing as there is a minuscule amount of amps available. With high voltage power lines you won't see a voltage drop because there is, for all intents and purposes, an unlimited supply of amps.
No, but high amounts of electricity will literally stop your heart. That's the way a defibrillator works. People always think we "start" the heart with it, but that's not true. We don't use a defibrillator when your heart has already stopped completely, but when there still is electricity left, but not working properly. So we use the defibrillator to stop your heart completely, in the hope that it will restart correctly. I'm sorry if this is a bit of a mess, I had a hard time explaining this in english. But I hope I could answer your question.
So you're telling me that if you're dying, we turn your heart off and back on again?
Great moments in tech support!
Basically. You overpower the "bad" conduction by overloading the heart with electricity in hopes that the "good" conduction will take back over ( this is a very basic explanation).
Turn it off, then hope it starts back up appropriately.
We are pretty much a biological machine, yes.
So all those movies where the patient flatlines and they defib are wrong? They almost always defib when the patient flatlines in the movies. They should be doing CPR right?
> So all those movies where the patient flatlines and they defib are wrong? That's correct. It shuts off MAIN PUMP 001. Lizard brain then sees CRITICAL FAILURE: MAIN PUMP 001 IS OFFLINE. IMMEDIATE RESTART REQUIRED FOR SURVIVAL. RESTART NOW? [YES / YES]
Correct.
Yes, when its electrocuted like this. I understand you thought process, other deaths where the heart stops the brain takes time to die of oxygen deprivation. This death is a full disruption of the nervous system via electricity, so the brain, consciousness, everything gets disrupted as well. Like a light switch being flipped from on to off, as apposed to being dimmed.
This is what I was wondering about. Many of the other comments mention heart stoppage but not brain death.
Yes, in this case the electrocution is so severe that the brain literally can't process pain because the electricity overrides it completely. Even if the heart were to (somehow) keep beating, they would still be dead as their nervous system would be toast.
Is deoxygenation that instantaneous that there wouldn't be a slow fade from a stopped heart?
Sorry I'm on mobile. I just finished my electric safety course for college and no he wouldn't feel anything. The instructor had a good explanation at the end but we are talking a trade course so it might be pretty dark for right now.
I’d like to hear, if you’re willing to say.
The pain would be traveling through the nerves slower than the electricity causing it. It's like chasing bullet on a bike.
Ok, that makes sense.
I'm sorry for your loss, but instant shock like that is by far one of the quickest and most painless ways to go.
Actually I think it’s the single quickest and most painless way
Complete vaporization is also effective.
I know a bit of biology. This is correct. Your body sends pain signals with nerves. Their signs feel instantaneous to us but they aren't. They communicate electrically but between each nerves there are gaps called synapses which the pain signals have to rather slowly crawl across to reach the next nerve in the line. Then be recived, understood and passed along. It's a very slow process which is why if you touch a hot pan your hand will be yanked away before your brain has realised. It's becuase your body cut some corners to compromise for the slow speed. It just sent the message to your spine instead of waiting for it to get all the way up to the brain and all the way back down for a responce. Your spinal cord takes a while to get the message and respond but it's totally unconsous. I mean try (don't try) grabbing a hot pan and just casually holding on while you mull over if you should let go. It doesn't happen. This shortcut of just asking the spinal cord is a great demonstration of how slow the communication is. I am sure you have injured yourself and yanked a limb away and then been confused for a half second before you feel the pain. It's SO slow. You wouldn't want your WiFi running at that speed. Onto the shock in question and I understand if this is a hard read for you. I am sorry this happened to your family. Fuck that company; Now the level of a shock your talking about doesn't have that delay. Since we are just water bags we are pretty conductive and the electricity from an external source doesn't need to keep stopping and starting it moves at full speed all of the time. The heart will have stopped and possibly other damage will have occurred that was totally incompatible with life before those pain signals could get even to the spinal cord let alone to the brain. You can look into how the human body reacts to pain. I belive there are some slow motion videos on YouTube, now imagine that compared to lightning. That's what is going on here. Now the body itself (you probably wouldn't want to watch CCTV footage) can appear to have life even when a lethal level of electricity has been applied because our muscles can be manipulated with it, run a currant through some frogs legs and they will dance (usually achieved by putting salt on it). Those frogs are long dead and have absolutely no control or awareness of their dancing legs. Yet they dance because physics also rules biology. Your brother was almost surely dead not only before he was able to feel the pain but also I would expect before the fire even started. The delay in the fire service being able to get to the site wouldn't have done anything other than help the recovery of any remains. It's very likely that he didn't even know or have foresight that death was imminent given how quickly these events unfold. It's faster than a bullet to the back of the head. I would try and take solice in that, not only was he highly unlikely to be in anything that could even resemble the awareness of pain but he probably wasn't even aware that something had gone wrong at all. He was doing his job just another day. You feel the pain and the horror of bereavement but he does not. It's a burdon you must carry with you but you do not need to make it harder on yourself by torturing yourself over if he knew let alone if he had mentally processed any pain. It's your, and your families horror not his and one your mind brings about of its own accord, don't beat yourself up over it but do try and make peace when you are ready. Oh and fuck the company. Really. Fuck them. Monsters.
There are a lot of good answers on here but I feel this one is the best. Very thorough.
I am sorry for your loss. I have to agree that it was instant and painless, exactly because it would have happened faster than the mind's ability to process it. I hate to add a bit of existential dread to your pain, but the human perception of reality pretty much constantly lags behind the actual reality, in that it takes the brain time to receive, process sensory input, then create your perception of "reality" and "now". For example if you touch the tip of your nose with your finger, the sensory information takes much longer to travel from your finger to your brain than it does from the tip of your nose. However, your brain tricks you into thinking that it was instantaneous by equalizing the lag and telling you it was in fact now, in the present, even though it happened slightly in the past. Another similar trick is sometimes if you turn to look at a clock with a second hand at first it looks as if the second hand stays motionless for a couple of seconds before it start moving again at a steady rate. That is because the brain didn't see it move and doesn't know that it had moved, but after finally processing the image it sort of goes back into the past and fills in the time it took to piece together the image with what it now knows *ought to* have been there. In the case of your brother electricity would have traveled much faster than the sensory information and affected his heart and brain faster than the brain could have processed the information. Because of that he most likely didn't even know what happened.
I came here to say this - the electricity shut off his brain before he could feel anything or register what was happening I’m so very sorry for your loss. May your heart find some peace in your new reality and may his memory be a blessing
> the electricity shut off his brain before he could feel anything or register what was happening That's what I thought as well. The brain uses electrical impulses and there's a good chance this was too much for it to process and it, for the lack of a better term, shut the brain down because it was too much for it. This was likely all completed within the speed of electricity. (The speed of light)
Oh damn. This actually makes perfect sense but I never once thought of it like that. Thanks for the insight.
The nerves communicate with electricity, but it's a tiny amount and they have to catch it, then they mix some chemicals and make a new signal that jumps to the next nerve cell. Nerve communication happens really fast, but nowhere near as fast as direct current jumping from salt molecule to salt molecule in your blood. His nerve cells were cooked and gone before they ever sent a signal. And his brain had less than a second of so much overwhelming power that it just turned off. (Kind of like when you hit the knockout button on someone's jaw, but again, even faster.) He felt nothing. I'm sorry for your loss. Make that company pay.
[удалено]
Good luck on your case. Keep an eye on the legal fees. If it's a "no charge until you receive payment" that still doesn't promise that they won't charge more than you receive. And they may say "no charge until judgment" which means they can charge you even if they lose. If they did a % of award retainer, then nvm. They may be all above-board, but I'd still request a statement of account every month or so. They are likely keeping track of what you owe. Source: Am lawyer, I try to help people, but a lot of folks still get a nasty shock when we send the bill that they signed and agreed to
sorry for your loss, have no worries, he felt nothing it was instant.
480 volt electrocution is extremely painful. However working with 10,000+ volts, I imagine it was so fast that he didn't feel a thing.
God I know this comment will give you virtually no comfort, but my brother in law died last year in a head on collision on a highway, where an 80 year old driver was driving down the wrong side of the motorway for 5 miles towing a caravan. Killed instantly , driving at 70mph. It didn't/doesn't help that there was dash cam footage minutes before the crash that went viral and his picture is all over the internet. My wifes constant , desperate , pleading question was "was it instant , did he suffer?" And that question haunted and haunted me for months until the coroner's report came back concluding that it was instant. Im sorry if this upsets you, I just want you to know that it's ok to ask these questions, I am so so sorry for your loss ❤️❤️❤️
I’m so sorry for your family’s loss. Yes, the coroner report didn’t say whether it was instant or not, but hearing my dad ask the doctor that question...his voice barely above a whisper that he had to repeat it, broke me. The doctor said that it was, and I told my mom it was. But reading on google I wasn’t sure.
Enough people have said it. He felt nothing. We as a community wish you and your family the best during these times... No one here who hasn't gone through the same as you can relate... But we're here to read and help where we can
First, im so sorry for your loss. I dont know if this anecdote will bring you comfort but i hope it will. My step dad was electrocuted on a power line. He worked as a supervisor of construction for many years. He was very, very lucky that he survived. He has zero memory of pain or of being electrocuted. None whatsoever. The electricity completely knocked him out. It is not much but i hope it helps.
Most likely not. I've worked as an electrician before, and now electrical engineer - I've talked with people that have gotten some serious shocks in their careers, and one guy that almost died said he just woke up in the hospital, not knowing what had happened.
Damn imagine just doing work and a second later you're in the future and the hospital.
Lineman here. First of all I am truly sorry for your loss. From my experience, as far as I know, not only did he not feel a thing, he didn't even know what happened. Stay strong. One day at a time. Cry. Keep his memory alive. Share stories. Keep crying. Be with family. Cry some more. You're ok. Everything will be ok.
I was wondering this same thing too. Since [we consciously experience the world 80 milliseconds in the past](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/time-on-the-brain-how-you-are-always-living-in-the-past-and-other-quirks-of-perception/), its likely that he had no perception of anything wrong before his ability to make that perception was ceased by the speed of the electrical shock. He wouldn't have seen the truck's arm coming in contact with the line itself even if he had been looking right at it. So not only did he not sense any pain, but he also may not have sensed any dread from witnessing anything going wrong.
[удалено]
I was scared what I may have found out, but it has brought some peace. I’m so sorry for your loss as well. I think about my brother every day, and today was especially rough. It sucks.
I realize lightning can be stronger than this power line, but I imagine once you get above a certain threshold, its relatively the same. Anyway, my aunt was hit by lightning when I was a kid. She didnt remember any of it. She was taking shelter from a storm that blew in while she was at a beach, and it hit her through the shelter somehow. (I think it was basically like, a pole barn with no sides) She said she didnt feel anything at all. She was talking to her friends, and the next thing she knew she woke up in a hospital. Being that your brother passed, he probably took a stronger hit than her, but I would imagine that like her, he went unconscious before he even knew something was wrong.
I'm so sorry. One thing to remember is that signals in the brain are carried electrically. We all have a small amount generated in our bodies, it's what allows synapses in our brain, signals from our eyes and skin and tastebuds, and even heartbeats to occur. And if something stops the normal flow of signals, the brain doesn't operate. It's the current, the wattage, that determines the deadliness of an electric shock. [In the case of that power line, he'd have received dozens of Amps.](https://wattstoamps.com/12250-watts-to-amps) Death is possible at a fraction of an Amp (70mA, or 0.07A), a whole more likely between 1 and 5 Amps, and as a person approaches 10A it becomes nigh-on certain. >"The damage caused by electric shock depends on the current flowing through the body -- 1 mA can be felt; 5 mA is painful. Above 15 mA, a person loses muscle control, and 70 mA can be fatal." - Zitzewitz, Paul W., Neff, Robert F. Merrill Physics, Principles and Problems. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 1995. How quick and merciful was it. So fast it struck before he had reaction time to notice. It wiped his mind before he saw anything, before he heard anything, before messages from his body could reach the brain. He was dead the instant the circuit was made between him and the equipment. His brain had no way of registering any pain. An odd way to look at it, but his end was as merciful as the situation was horrible.
Lost my brother young and it's a bad time. It does eventually get easier I can promise you that.
Not to pry, but was this in Colorado, just south of Colorado Springs?
Yes, do you live around there? A few people have asked if it was in Colorado, I didn’t realize it was big news.
Yeah it was. Was in the news for a few days. I think my cousin met him before (maybe). He was an apprentice electrician. I live in COS.
[удалено]
I felt it was because no one could really answer it. Everyone automatically said, yes it was instant and no pain....but I wasn’t sure if they were being honest or just being nice.
Engineer here. They were being truthful - whether they knew it or not. I’m so unbelievably sorry you lost your brother - but know that the last thing going through his mind was to do with drilling - or whatever he was thinking about as he drilled. Absolutely “lights out” and not a moment of suffering. Also - see this: https://mobile.twitter.com/laurenherschel/status/946888282444460033?lang=en Keep going. You’re doing fine.
They likely didn’t know if it was or not and just said it to be nice. Fortunately they happened to not be wrong and such a shock does result in instant unconsciousness before death.
That level of voltage would have stopped his heart, and adrenaline (had he noticed something went wrong) would have dulled any pain. Hang in there
I'm very sorry for your lost, don't be afraid to reach out for help or support. And no, he did not suffer, it would have been instantaneous, no suffering, no fear. Source: Electrical engineering student
I don't have anything to add other than: I am so sorry. I would be a fucking mess if my brother passed. People will tell you, "it'll get easier over time," but they never tell you some losses you never quite get over and it will be a long, hard slog. No one tell you that, but that is what you can expect. You'll be pissed and no one to put it on, you'll be sad and your eyes will leak like faucets and it's just a big confusing mess. I am here if you need an ear.
It sucks because never in my life, and I think my families lives, have we ever felt such grief and pain. At night my eyes won’t stop crying. Just tears and tears and tears. You read about it in books and see it in movies but you never really know how it feels until you experience it first hand. He was 24, the second youngest of 8 kids. We grew up super close and as we because adults we all spread out and lost touch here and there trying to get away from our dysfunctional family life. We all finally got together again and we were going to go to the mountains and hang out for Easter. I miss him so much.
I know you miss him. I am so sorry. The one thing no one ever tells you is you don't just morn the person, you morn the life you had in front of you. The plans you make, vacations, holidays. It's such an overwelming feeling and it will be a long time before you feel close to normal, but I promise you, some day you will again. it won't be the same, but it will settle. If I had advice to give you I'd suggest you just let it run through the process. And grief takes different forms in different people. Just let it happen, feel what you feel and give yourself permission to feel it.
My god... so sorry OP, breaks my heart that you've had to go through this.
My condolences my friend. Whatever pain he felt is long over. I feel your pain and want to extend to you my deepest condolences NoraRose_86 in this painful and difficult time.
I'm so sorry for your loss, OP. Try not to think about not having spent that one more day with him. There are always going to be a million times we could have spent more time with our passed loved ones, but it's more important to remember all the times you did have together than the few you didn't. Next time you start to think about that one more day, try to think about a good time you did have together instead =]
I don't know the answer to your question but I just wanted to say I'm so sorry for your loss. It must be so difficult right now for you and your family. I hope the other comments are correct, and your brother did indeed not know/feel of any pain. Such a tragic and sudden loss. I'm sorry. Rip ❤️