12-Year-Old Critical After Getting Shocked At Lake

[hockeyoligist2]

LAKE HARTWELL, S.C. -- A 12-year-old girl remains hospitalized after she suffered an electrical shock and then nearly drowned, according to the Anderson County Sheriff?s Office.

Catherine Ann Lott was listed as critical but stable at the Greenville Hospital System's Childrens Hospital.

Deputies said that the child?s mother told them the girl had been playing on the dock off Sunset Lane on Lake Hartwell with another child on Saturday evening when she grabbed a cable coming from the dock and then fell into the water.

The Lotts?s father pulled her from the lake, deputies said. The child was unresponsive and the father began to perform CPR.

EMS responded to the house, and deputies said that when they arrived, workers were trying to revive the child.

Lott, was airlifted to Greenville Memorial Hospital.

Williford Fire Chief Randy Bratcher said the fact that Lott was wearing a life jacket and got immediate medical response from her father and emergency crews may have saved her life.

"If [people] are going to have a pump on their dock [it's important] to have it hard wired in and not use drop wires or extension cords to run their pump. Make sure that it's grounded properly," said Bratcher.

http://www.wyff4.com/news/24900425/detail.html

 

[Jraef]

So I can gather from this that South Carolina does not require GFCIs for equipment near marinas?

I love how the media feels compelled to spin this into something more widespread and dangerous than it really is. The fireman said it was an irrigation pump put on the dock, probably some hill-billy rig to water the lawn. But the media went off on a tangent about "boats leaking electricity into lakes and rivers" and brought up a side story on some other poor unfortunate girl who drowned from something they referred to as "ESD" mentioning a boat "leaking" electricity into a lake. ESD is static (Electro Static Discharge) and might be related to a charge building up on a metal rail insulated from the water by a fiberglass hull, then the girl made contact with the rail and the water, allowing the charge to dissipate through her, which could conceivably stun her to where she drowned. Totally separate thing from the irrigation pump issue.

 

[sparky59]

A

So I can gather from this that South Carolina does not require GFCIs for equipment near marinas?

I love how the media feels compelled to spin this into something more widespread and dangerous than it really is. The fireman said it was an irrigation pump put on the dock, probably some hill-billy rig to water the lawn. But the media went off on a tangent about "boats leaking electricity into lakes and rivers" and brought up a side story on some other poor unfortunate girl who drowned from something they referred to as "ESD" mentioning a boat "leaking" electricity into a lake. ESD is static (Electro Static Discharge) and might be related to a charge building up on a metal rail insulated from the water by a fiberglass hull, then the girl made contact with the rail and the water, allowing the charge to dissipate through her, which could conceivably stun her to where she drowned. Totally separate thing from the irrigation pump issue.

Apparently you aren't familiar with the problem of electrical shock around fresh water docks and marinas.

 

[K8MHZ]

So I can gather from this that South Carolina does not require GFCIs for equipment near marinas?

I love how the media feels compelled to spin this into something more widespread and dangerous than it really is. The fireman said it was an irrigation pump put on the dock, probably some hill-billy rig to water the lawn. But the media went off on a tangent about "boats leaking electricity into lakes and rivers" and brought up a side story on some other poor unfortunate girl who drowned from something they referred to as "ESD" mentioning a boat "leaking" electricity into a lake. ESD is static (Electro Static Discharge) and might be related to a charge building up on a metal rail insulated from the water by a fiberglass hull, then the girl made contact with the rail and the water, allowing the charge to dissipate through her, which could conceivably stun her to where she drowned. Totally separate thing from the irrigation pump issue.

ESD also stands for Electric Shock Drowing

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/terry-gardner/esd-hidden-danger-in-fres_b_693454.html

Recent incidents include:

* On May 29, 2010, Michael Cunningham became an ESD victim when he reached for a ladder on the houseboat that he had been swimming behind. He was instantly electrocuted. It was later determined that the houseboat had been leaking electric current into the fresh water at Stonewall Jackson Lake in Weston, West Virginia. Michael was 15-years-old.

* On July 10, Beth Waite experienced electrical shock while swimming behind a houseboat in Green River Lake in Kentucky. When her boyfriend, John Childress tried to rescue her from the jet ski boat ramp at the back of the houseboat, he felt a strong shock and asked Bobby Gullett, the houseboat's owner to call 9-1-1 and turn off all electricity on the boat. After turning off the power, Gullett jumped into the water to rescue Beth and became incapacitated by electric voltage still flowing through the water. Both Gullett and Waite received emergency medical care. Electricians determined the houseboat was leaking electricity into the fresh water lake.

* On July 31, a father and his two 13-year-old sons were shocked, but survived, in Lake Champlain in Vermont.

* On July 25, Zachary Crays lost his life to ESD in Lake Freeman in Carroll County, Indiana. He was 13-years-old.

There is also a Facebook page for Electric Shock Drowning

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=117494761627517

Houseboats with AC generators seem to be the most dangerous.

I am also suspect of many of the boat lifts I see near docks.

I am glad to see some attempt at bringing this very real hazard to the public's eye.