Electrical accident

13/7-2017 I was in connection with my work out of an electrical accident

As many have probably noticed, I was shocked in July 2017, and have since struggled with the consequences… Until now, July 2021, I have been in contact with 18 different treatment sites and waiting for another referral. Employers' Business insurance has recognized my accident from the beginning, but at the same time they have had great challenges in placing me in a box, as they do not have a spreadsheet where I fit in. As everyone reacts differently to electricity through the body, it has made research difficult from electrical damage, and therefore also my report, or rather until now!

2/6-2021 I finally got a diagnosis, in connection with an examination by a neurophysicist. It's something surreal here after 4 years, finally getting a concrete one; "this is it" which was damaged in connection with my accident. It turns out that after being "grilled" I got one; chronic brachial plexus injury.

A diagnosis the orthopedic surgeon understandably rejected, but Nerve Conduction Examination (ENG) and electromyography (EMG) documented my injury. It seemed to be relatively rare after an electrical accident, in other words, the first time he had seen it, but not without precedent. The injury is atypical in that I have full mobility and have not lost muscle strength, which has also made it extra difficult for Employers' Business insurance to find a "box" for me. What helps mobility and muscle strength, which have severely limited uses?

From the beginning I have tried to explain, my injury with some of my nerves was burned away. They are not gone but have been damaged when I got electric shock.

Gene:

The discovery explains why I tries to spare my arm, as well as that on a bad day I can not lift a packet of yeast with my right arm, and on a good day I have to be careful when drinking a cup of coffee. When the temperature exceeds 15-17 degrees, the skin feels as if it is drizzled with boiling water. The pain when I overload myself makes me dream of settling for kidney stones.

Diagnosis: Lazarus Electrica (Damage effect of electric current)

It has been a long road since the accident, but from day 1, there has been no doubt that there was something that took damage to my body, in connection with power flowing through my body in connection with my accident.

In addition, my genes are recognized according to the sparse research that exists around electrical damage.

Diagnosis: Laesio nervii Plexus Brachialis dexter, seq.

In connection with I would have resumed my work injury case, as I absolutely do not agree with the first decision, I sought guidance from Ulykkespatientforeningen, and while I was waiting on the phone, I looked around their website, as one now does when waiting in a phone queue. Here I came across a nerve pain called "plexus injure", I looked up the word, and immediately read a description that matched 95%, to my genes. Which got me guided in the right direction.

I feel like it was a stroke of luck, I had previously been advised against a Nerve Conduction Examination, by my former GP, and he is absolutely right that the examination would not be able to make me healthy, and would not be able to show that there is nothing wrong , but if, as is the case, then the investigation helps to substantiate my insurance case.

In connection with an error referral, to a Nerve Injury Clinic. I should actually have been referred to a Pain Clinic. But the anesthesiologist and neurologist who looked at me were very interested. The ones they offer are blocking individual specific nerves. They experienced significantly more areas of sensory disturbance when they tried to do the test where they stabbed / pricked my skin. Since for me there is a clear difference in my feeling nose, whether I can see where they dot or not see. Unfortunately, my pain is too diffuse for them to dare to do anything, because if they could do something about the pain in my arm, then they are afraid that the pain in my chest will feel more prominent.

They were very interested in one more nerve, my Intercostobrachial nerve, which is a branch of the Plexus Brachialis. apparently have protrusions to the chest, via the point, at the armpit where I experience the strongest pain.

My injury is atypical in that I have full mobility and have not lost muscle strength, which has also made it extra difficult for the Employers' Business Insurance, to find a "box" for me. But what helps mobility and muscle strength, along with severely limited uses and on a bad day, can not lift a pack of yeast.

Diagnosis: Laesio nervii Intercostalis, seq. (Chest Wall Pain)

After I was diagnosed with brachial plexus injury, I did a quick internet search "Never across my chest" as there is now an explanation for my pain in my arm and shoulder. So one must logically assume that there is a connection between the pain / injury in the chest, and the injury in my arm and shoulder. I came quite quickly to "Intercostal neuralgia" whose description is very similar, the description I myself used, already when I called 112 after the accident. This was subsequently confirmed in connection with a specialist statement.

Quite basically, when it is hot, I experience itching and tingling in the skin, and just below. If I lift something that is a little too heavy while I bend my upper body, I have a few days where I have the feeling that someone is sitting on my chest. If my heart rate rises, or I overload myself, I experience a little deeper pain around my heart; if one imagines the heart was in a cave, then it is the cave wall that hurts. My heart has been thoroughly checked, the picture at the top shows when I was admitted to the heart ward at Horsens Hospital - A special experience where I had difficulty persuading the doctor on the phone to be allowed to enter the doctor. But when I was checked in the emergency room, I was not allowed to go home.

To the emergency center, I described my chest pain as if, my heart felt like a stone, and subsequently, before anyone showed anything, my own doctor had a theory that I had a fiber rupture in my chest.

The connection

The connection between Plexus Brachialis and Intercostalis nerves is obvious, being connected in the same places on the spine.

Job center

In connection with my sick leave, I was going to do an internship. When my wife worked as a store manager, and had challenges with a warehouse that was not updated. I got an internship in the health store she was managing. But my social worker stopped the internship as I had many sick days, as I was overwhelmed by putting packets of tea on the shelves (3 x 20g + cardboard packaging) and buckets of vitamin pills.

I was first fired as there was no chance I could return to my previous job as an electrician. I was otherwise in my dream job, where I felt valued and, my latest major project had been patient insurance at OOP Vejle, the new psychiatric ward at Vejle Hospital. Where I also, as my superintendent described it, were given the convoluted magic tasks which he could not put others to; for example, there was a project manager who had forgotten wiring in doors and windows when these were ordered, which I assume was 60% of these in the 18,000 km² building.

My caseworker and job consultant from Hedensted Municipality are the only ones who, directly and without blinking, have lied to me. They suggested that I consider an engineering degree. But since I am divorced and paying paternity pay, I was told that this could be postponed, it was a completely normal procedure and this claim was repeated at several meetings. But when I was registered, and asked myself how I should behave at the state administration, now the family court and the SU board, they flatly rejected that possibility. When I then confronted my caseworker and job consultant, they lied, saying that we had never talked about my challenge with 3x paternity pay and SU, and they would never guide me about SU and paternity pay. This led to a meeting with the head of the job center's lawyer, and by chance the caseworker and job consultant no longer worked at the municipality.

I worked hard to be awarded rehabilitation, but it is a tool the municipality is trying to avoid, so the caseworker suggested that I become a cashier instead. I doubt she has read my journal and my challenges with my right arm. I have had a desire to return to the job market, in a job I can handle my challenges. Based on the philosophy that I might as well sit in school and be in pain as I could be sitting at home in pain.

Later, when I again tried to seek rehabilitation, I got the lawyer as a caseworker, I think I was seen as troublesome, the job center's lawyer recommended that I stop my education so I could get on cash benefits, which I got the tape, as I recorded the conversation.

Education

February 2018 I started on the "admission course to the engineering studies" in Horsens. To be qualified, from my education as an electrician, where I was trained in 2002. A little hard to start directly on math level B, while I was in pain.

In February 2019, I started on the actual engineering education, for software engineer. Where I am not going to use much other than a computer to work. For other types, I can not imagine that one should not just examine, for example, a building part. I looked around my office / worhshop, and surrounded by electronics projects, programming of these and 3d printing there was not much doubt I would choose the thesis Embedded Electronic.

Accident

Approx. 3 weeks before the accident I was told to remove the locks on some safety switches for control. I refused, telling them that the cables were mounted in the guide, but not at the other end, as I was missing materials. But because my colleague, who was more experienced with this type of installation (CTS), told me that there would be no power on the cables until the control was turned on, I allowed myself to be persuaded to turn on the power. Unfortunately, there were some cables for some circulation pumps which were supplied directly, bypassing the control. So when I had pulled the cables into a ventilation system 3 weeks later, through several bushings, I just wanted to hang the cables neatly. It was here that my right index finger touched the end of the cable with tension, while my left shoulder rested against the metal side.

This means that the flow path in my body has run in along my right index finger, up through my arm and shoulder, across my body via my spine out through my chest and further out through my left shoulder.

Afterwards I healed myself a bit before asking some other craftsmen to keep an eye on me for safety, before I called the doctor's doctor, my own doctor had just turned off the phone when I thought the feeling in my body was probably because my body was straight had been tense due to the current. When I got through, I got a fucking ball and told to call 112 right away. I talked to the emergency center and the police while the ambulance was on its way, quietly as they said on the phone. But the ambulance came at full speed, with the siren and blue flashing. What I remember most clearly from the trip was that I was only strapped to the stretcher when we approached Horsens, until then I had a feeling of slipping around. The rescuer who was around me, who took an ECG, told me that he got a little nervous because his own son had just started an apprenticeship as an electrician.

Case

It has been a challenge that I, until now, have not fit into a "box", there is not really a spreadsheet called electrical damage, and the current does not run the same, in our bodies. The resistance in the body changes, for example, with how much you have been allowed to drink that day. I have been lucky that my injury was recognized from the start, but my case still passed the National Board of Appeal, which increased the degree of damage that the Employers' business insurance had arrived at.

I find it VERY frustrating that the Employers' Business Insurance assesses my injuries, according to the men-table box (D.1.4.2) which reads "Daily, strain-induced pain and slightly reduced mobility", in other words, they compare my injury to a tennis elbow. It would be significantly more logical to look at box (D.1.9.1) which deals directly with Plexus injuries. To this is added a box (C.1.1), which actually deals with injuries with daily pain after a fracture of the rib. That is, nerve damage on branches, on the "Intercostalis", which lies below the ribs. Where my injuries are not from a fracture, but from when the current ran through my body.

The responsibility part has not yet been decided, and is awaiting the Court in Kolding's decision, pt. the Court has sent my case past the Medical Examiner's Council, as my previous employer does not find it substantiated that there is a connection between my pain and the accident. There, I'm sure it helps that I've finally got a physical diagnosis.

The actual case of liability for the accident is a matter of, which is my former employer's claim that it was my own fault because I did not follow the applicable safety guidelines. My contention is that a colleague guided me incorrectly, and thereby my former employer is responsible, as an employer is responsible for his employees. As a case law, from Roman law, called "Pater familias", which states that the head of a family is responsible for members of his household.

Invisible vs. visible

Now I just need to adjust to the challenges that have become everyday for me… an episode I have experienced describes it very well: “One day when I was sitting in the bus on the way home from school, a mother was standing at a stop with her stroller. The female bus driver had a bad back, so of course I was asked if I, who looks healthy and strong on the outside, could lend a hand ”. It's hard to say no, because what kind of person is one who could think of saying no to helping a "woman in need", even though I know how to help, at the same time knowing that it will cost me 4 days where I can not be in my body for pain.

I am proven that the issue that I still need to get to grips with is a mixture of my own self-understanding, and societal norms. I find it cross-border to ask for help, and feel that others see me as lazy if I, who looks healthy and strong, do not also lend a hand in putting chairs in place after an event. A doctor advised me to go with the arm sling to make the invisible handicap visible, on a bad day… not because it is necessary, but to help me say no, without feeling that others are judging me.

It's hard to put into words, I'm not looking for pity, but trying to tell where I am in my process, to reinvent myself, I know who I was, know my values, but I'm still trying to figure out how I can make it harmonize with the person I am now.

Thoughts

It is possible that there are very few who would let the Champagne cork pop after the aforementioned svada… but it is a relief to finally have a documentable explanation, so I finally fit in a "box".

Now I just need to adjust to the challenges that have become everyday for me… an episode I have experienced describes it very well: “One day when I was sitting in the bus on the way home from school, a mother was standing at a stop with her stroller. The female bus driver had a bad back, so of course I was asked if I, who looks healthy and strong on the outside, could lend a hand ”. It's hard to say no, because what kind of person is one who could think of saying no to helping a "woman in need", even though I know how to help, at the same time knowing that it will cost me 4 days where I can not be in my body for pain.

I am proven that the issue that I still need to get to grips with is a mixture of my own self-understanding and societal norms. I find it cross-border to ask for help, and feel that others see me as lazy if I, who looks healthy and strong, do not also lend a hand in putting chairs in place after an event.

A doctor advised me to go with the arm sling to make the invisible handicap visible, on a bad day… not because it is necessary, but to help me say no, without feeling that others are judging me. It's hard to put into words, I'm not looking for pity, but trying to tell where I am in my process, to reinvent myself, I know who I was, know my values, but I'm still trying to figure out how I can make it harmonize with the person I am now.

I also have a bad conscience when I tell them that I have been shocked, so I always get a story about once they themselves were shocked, certainly as a form of empathy, to show that they can put themselves in my place. The first day I had the sling on my arm, then there was someone behind me in the queue who asked for my arm. I came up with the usual explanation that I had been shocked. Then came his story ... and I have probably been a little uninterested, but he told about his son who had died in a work accident where he was hit, I had a hard time getting back to the conversation when I was in pain, but had the son worked in the same company as me when I got shocked.

I am working on moving on, I am studying to become a software engineer, but have been on sick leave with stress, which comes from a mix of the many hours I put into the studio, my pain and the uncertainty surrounding my report. fortunately I am ready to continue with renewed enthusiasm, until the start of the next semester.

Previous Next

The original article from the union magazine "Elektrikeren 7/2019" can be found here.

©Tekst: Niels Stoktoft Overgaard
©Foto: Michael Drost-Hansen

Kilder

DEF

Plexus Brachialis Injure

Interkostal Neuralgi

Connection between Plexus Brachialis og Interkostal

Damage effect of electric current

Pain

Other

Lærkes Blog; Kampen efter elulykke