A worker suffered life-threatening injuries after being electrocuted while hanging lights on a Christmastree.
The unidentified 22-year-old was hanging the lights in Wellesley, Massachusetts Wednesday morning. He was hanging lights using a pole that got too close to an electrical line, which shocked him, police said.
The man, who works for the company NZ Power Wash in a neighboring town, was rushed to Mass General Hospital in Boston. He was in critical condition as of Wednesday night. He had been contracted by a resident to hang the lights, ABC News reports.
“He’ll be pretty lucky if he survives,” Wellesley Police Officer Tim Gover, who responded to the incident, said. “He took a big hit.”
911 received a call from a witness who said he wasn’t breathing. His co-worker started CPR, and police took over when they arrived on the scene, CBS News reports. After firefighters arrived, they used a defibrillator to revive him. It took three tries, but he eventually regained a pulse, according to NBC.
OSHA, local police and the Wellesley Municipal Light Plant are all investigating the incident.
“The Wellesley Police, Fire, and WMLP Departments extend our thoughts and prayers to the victim and his family during this tragic incident,” a spokesperson for the Wellesley Police Department said in a statement.
The Wellesley Municipal Light Plant has also determined the utility pole poses no danger to the public.
The Independent has contacted NZ Power Wash for comment.
Antonio Pascual of Escondido, California was also electrocuted while hanging Christmas lights last week, USA Today reports. The 24-year-old was hanging lights when he threw the string over a high voltage powerline.
Paramedics found Pascual “hanging upside down from a tree,” the medical examiner’s office said. He died from his injuries on Thursday.
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