First aid for electric shock

In physics, there are concepts: step and touch voltage. Step voltage occurs between 2 points of a current-carrying circuit, the distance between which corresponds to approximately one step. A person standing simultaneously on these points falls under its influence and receives an electric shock. The most dangerous situation is when the victim falls. Then the voltage increases, because Now the current affects not only the legs, but the whole body.

When a person touches these points in the circuit at the same time, touch voltage appears, which can also lead to negative electric shocks. Its danger lies in the possible short circuit of the circuit, and also affects the voltage in the network and the operation of its neutrals.

This article will tell you what the dangers of getting an electrical injury are, how to understand that a person has been exposed to voltage in the network, how to help him, and what to do after an electric shock.

Causes and consequences

Step voltage

Domestic or industrial electrical injuries are extremely common. They often arise due to failure to comply with basic, safe actions when working with electrical appliances. Let's look at the most common causes leading to electric shock:

Working electrical appliances that have any malfunction
Touching bare parts of the wire with bare hands
Self-repair without following safety rules and minimal knowledge of physics
Strong, sudden changes in voltage in the network. They can not only harm human health, but also cause a fire.
In production, it is possible that voltage may be erroneously supplied to areas where people may be working.
Household electrical appliances (for example, for heating a room) made independently or that do not comply with safety regulations (purchased on the market, without quality documents)

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First aid for burns

It should be understood that electric shock has a very strong negative effect on the human body. Even with mild damage, you should see a doctor, because... delayed consequences are possible.

Electricity, affecting the body, causes biological, thermal and electrolytic damage. The latter are associated with changes in the composition of the main body fluids (blood, lymph). They are destroyed, which leads to severe disruption of the functioning of internal organs.

Thermal effects are expressed in the appearance of burns on the skin, heating and destruction of nerve fibers and blood vessels. Biological disorders manifest themselves in uncontrolled contractions of muscles, including the heart muscle and respiratory organs.

All electric shocks, depending on the time of exposure and strength, have 4 levels of damage:

The easiest is grade 1. Muscle contraction is felt, but the person remains conscious.
In grade 2, sudden muscle contraction leads to unconsciousness. An important point: breathing and heartbeat are clearly defined, there are no failures.
The functioning of the heart and respiratory organs is disrupted, a person is unconscious for a long time - these are the symptoms of stage 3 electric shock.
Stage 4 – severe muscle spasms lead to cardiac arrest, breathing cannot be determined. In this case, clinical death occurs. Its maximum duration depends on various factors and can reach 8 minutes.

Clinical death should be distinguished from biological death, which can only be diagnosed by medical professionals. At level 4, timely and correct assistance in case of electric shock is extremely important.

Tips for Minimizing Electrical Hazards

Here are guidelines for minimizing electrical hazards:

Turn off and unplug appliances when not in use and before cleaning.
Turn off all appliances at the end of the day.
Do not insert a plug into an outlet if it does not fit.
Avoid running electrical cords through high-traffic areas, under carpets, or through doorways to prevent fraying of the cords and minimize accidents.

Any faulty equipment, wiring, plugs, etc. must be immediately removed from the premises. Socket outlets should not be overloaded, so either arrange for the equipment to be connected elsewhere or inform a competent person who can take action to minimize the need to overload them.

For example, this may require a licensed electrician to install additional outlets to reduce overload or the need to rely heavily on extension cords.

Main symptoms

Emergency care for electrical injury

Having seen a person unconscious, before calling a doctor and providing first aid, the cause of such a painful condition should be determined.

An electric shock can be easily recognized by the presence of burns at the points where the current enters and/or exits. The skin will be swollen and discolored, ranging from pink to red. In especially severe cases, blackening of the skin at the sites of electric shock is possible.

Convulsive movements indicate involuntary contractions that necessarily occur when a person comes under mains voltage. Weak or irregular pulse and breathing may also be impaired.

If a person is conscious, he may complain of pain throughout the body, a feeling of numbness in the limbs. There may also be confusion and slurred speech due to shock.

Electric current causes thermal, chemical and mechanical damage. Damage to the peripheral nervous system is determined by the passage of current, thermal effects, and burn intoxication.

Symptoms of electric shock:

Unexpected fall of a person on the street;
Unnatural throwing away from a current source by an invisible force;
Loss of consciousness;
Convulsions;
Severe neurological signs: memory loss, impaired understanding of speech and vision, impaired spatial orientation, psychomotor restlessness; weakness and weakness; dizziness and headache; violation of thermoregulation; flickering in the eyes, blurred vision.
Changes in skin sensitivity;
Ventricular fibrillation and respiratory arrest;
Burns on the body with sharply defined boundaries.

General electrical injuries

General electrical injuries (hereinafter referred to as GE) are characterized by damage to two or more parts of the body or several internal organs at once. A direct threat to the life of the body is posed by disturbances in the normal functioning of various life support systems, including the functioning of the heart, brain and central nervous system.

The damaging potential of electric current depends on the following main factors:

Type of current (alternating or direct) and frequency of current;
Current strength and applied voltage;
Current duration;
Electric current paths;

It is customary to distinguish the following loops of the probable passage of current through the body (see figure below):

pos. 1 – “hand-to-hand”;
pos. 2 – “left arm and legs”;
pos. 3 – “right arm-leg”;
pos. 4 – “arms and legs”;
pos. 5 – “leg-leg”;
pos. 6 – “head-legs”;
pos. 7 – “head-hand”;
pos. 8 – “head-leg”.

Possible paths of current through the body

The most dangerous in terms of the degree of damage are considered to be the “head-arm” (pos. 7) and “head-leg” (pos. 8) loops, which are characterized by the passage of current through the brain and spinal cord. The least dangerous is the “leg-leg” loop (position 5), which practically does not affect vital organs.

Resistance of the human body and the condition of the skin;
Individual characteristics of the human body;
Ambient air humidity.

Accidents associated with electric shock can be avoided if you strictly follow safety requirements when operating electrical equipment or do not use faulty household electrical appliances (for example, in everyday life they often neglect to carefully connect wires to sockets, using exposed wires, which can lead to electrical injury). Proper design, installation or repair of electrical devices ensures their safe operation.

In Fig. The following shows dangerous wiring connections to sockets.

Dangerous connection to sockets

What to do

Actions in case of electrical injury

Having detected a person after an electric shock, it is necessary to follow a certain algorithm of actions. You need to act calmly, quickly and correctly. By doing this, you will not only save his life, but also protect yourself from electric shock, under which the injured person may be.

Where to start:

First of all, de-energize the victim by removing the wires from him using any object that has low electrical conductivity (wood, rubber, glass, paraffin, plastic). A rolled up newspaper or magazine is a good option. If it is not possible to reach a person, if possible, de-energize the room using an electrical panel. If you find a victim on the street, then walk towards him on the ground in small steps, do not run.

Classification of electrical injuries

Safety precautions when handling electric current

Electrical injuries are classified according to the following criteria:

At the location of the electric shock injury;

In general, three types of traumatic injuries by currents of different origins are defined:

Industrial electrical injuries - if a person was injured at work while working with equipment powered by electricity;
Domestic injuries from electricity received in domestic conditions. Mostly, housewives and small children are susceptible to household electrical injuries. The main reasons are ignoring safety requirements when handling household appliances (washing machines, electric microwaves, irons);
Natural electrical injuries – as a result of exposure to natural electricity. A classic example is a lightning strike, which is a discharge of atmospheric electricity.

In Fig. Below is a typical household electrical injury - a burn to the hand after an electric shock from a faulty electrical appliance.

Household electrical injury

By the nature of the current (duration of exposure);

The temporary nature of the effect of current leads to two types of electrical injuries:

Instant electrical injuries resulting from the action of an electric discharge for a short period of time (so-called electric shock). They have life-threatening injuries that require urgent medical attention;
The chronic course of electrical injuries associated with the long-term and imperceptible influence of electric fields on a person. For example, personnel working near powerful high-voltage generators are susceptible to chronic electrical injuries. Symptoms of chronic damage are manifested in increased fatigue, tremors, high blood pressure, sleep disturbances, and memory impairment.

Based on the nature of the lesion, the following were determined:

Local electrical injuries, characterized by local (local) damage to a specific part of the body;
General electrical injuries, which are extensive damage to the body as a result of electric current flowing through it. With general electrical injuries, cardiac and respiratory arrest may occur, leading to the clinical death of the injured person.

According to statistics, damage from electric shocks is distributed as follows:

20% of all cases are local electrical injuries;
25% – general injuries;
55% are mixed, in which local and general lesions of the body simultaneously appear.

Providing first aid

In case of electric shock, you need to remember that death from electric shock can occur within a few hours, so you need to:

Call an ambulance immediately;
Assess the state of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. It’s easy to pat a person on the shoulder and ask basic questions (“Can you hear me” or “What’s your name”). If a person does not respond, there is no excursion of the chest and there is no pulse in the large arteries (neck), then resuscitation measures should be started:
Lay the victim on a flat, hard surface, clear the airways of vomit by wrapping a clean handkerchief or piece of cloth around your finger.
Tilt the victim's head back, open the mouth, push the lower jaw forward (Triple Safar maneuver);
Place your arms straight at the elbows (leading hand up) 2 fingers above the xiphoid process;
Perform 100 rhythmic compressions over 1 minute on the chest with a compression amplitude of 5-6 cm until the chest is completely straightened after pressing. Breathing mouth to mouth - two full exhalations every 30 presses on the projection of the heart.
The duration of resuscitation measures is until the ambulance arrives or until signs of life appear (pink skin, pulse and breathing). In this case, the victim is turned on his side and an ambulance is awaited;
If the victim is breathing , you should lay him down so that his head is lower than his legs (legs should be slightly raised). This is a necessary anti-shock measure;
Areas of the body damaged as a result of a burn or secondary injury from a fall must be covered with a clean cloth to prevent infection;
In the cold season, it is necessary to ensure that frostbite does not occur, and in the hot season - overheating.

Additional tips from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations:

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How to call an ambulance or intensive care unit correctly

Before helping someone who has been electrocuted, ensure your safety - use rubber shoes and gloves.
Use wood or plastic to remove exposed electrical wire from a person.
Pull the victim away from the area where the electrical wire touches the ground or floor.
Call an ambulance.
Determine the presence of a pulse in the carotid artery.
If there are no signs of life, perform CPR (assuming you know how to do it!).
If breathing and heartbeat are restored, turn the electrocuted person on his side.
Cover the person who has regained consciousness, warm him up and monitor his condition until the ambulance arrives.

Relief from electric current

In case of electric shock, it is necessary to free the victim from the effects of shock as soon as possible, because The severity of the electrical injury depends on the duration of this action.

Touching live parts that are energized in most cases causes involuntary convulsive muscle contractions and general agitation, which can lead to disruption, even complete cessation of the respiratory and circulatory system.

If the victim holds the wire with his hands, his fingers become so tight that it becomes impossible to free the wire from his hands.

Therefore, the first action of assistance should be to immediately turn off that part of the electrical installation that the victim touches.

Disconnection is carried out using a switch, switch, and also by removing or unscrewing fuses.

If it is impossible to turn off the installation quickly enough, it is necessary to take other measures to free the victim from the action of the current.

In all cases, the person providing assistance should not touch the victim without proper precautions, because it's life-threatening.

He must also ensure that he himself does not come into contact with the live part and under step voltage.

Voltage up to 1000V

To separate the victim from live parts or wires with voltage up to 1000V, you should use a rope, stick, board or dry object that does not conduct electric current.

You can also pull him by the clothing (if it is dry and lags behind the body), for example, by the hem of a jacket or coat, by the collar, while avoiding touching surrounding metal objects and parts of the victim’s body that are not covered by clothing. When pulling the victim by the legs, the person providing assistance should not touch his shoes or clothes, because shoes and clothing may be damp and conduct electrical current.

To isolate the hands, the person providing assistance must wear dielectric gloves or wrap a scarf around the hand, put a cloth cap on it, throw a rubber mat or just dry cloth over the victim. You can also insulate yourself by standing on a rubber mat, dry board, or non-conductive sole. When separating a victim from live parts, it is recommended to act with one hand, holding the other in your pocket or behind your back.

If an electric current passes into the ground through the victim and he convulsively squeezes one current-carrying element in his hand (for example, a wire, it is easier to interrupt the current by separating the victim from the ground), slip a dry board under him, or pull him by his clothes. You can also cut the wires with an ax with a dry wooden handle or cut them with a tool with insulated handles (nippers, pliers). It is necessary to cut the wires in phases, i.e. each wire separately, and it is necessary to stand on dry boards or a wooden ladder.

Voltage over 1000V

To separate the victim from live parts energized above 1000V, you should wear dielectric gloves and boots, use a rod or insulating ends designed for the appropriate voltage. In this case, one must remember about the danger of step voltage if the live part lies on the ground and after freeing the victim from the action of the current, it is necessary to remove him from the dangerous zone.

On power lines, to free the victim if he touches the wires, short-circuit the wires by throwing a flexible, uninsulated wire over them.

The wire must have a sufficient cross-section so that it does not burn out when a short circuit current passes through it. Before making a surge, one end of the wire must be grounded (connect it to the body of a metal support, grounding descent, etc.). The conductor must be thrown so that it does not touch people, including the person providing assistance and the victim. If the victim touches one wire, it is often sufficient to ground only that wire.