Teen Survives 25,000-Volt Shock That Burned His Clothes Off

Mirrored By DuggMirror (?) at 08:29:20 EDT May 9, 2008

Original URL: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354385,00.html
Comment on this story at http://digg.com/health/Teen_Survives_25_000_Volt_Shock_That_Burned_His_Clothes_Off

View Stats on This Story's Diggs From DuggTrends

Other Mirrors: Google cache   Coral Cache 8080 8090   Archive.org Wayback Machine

Breaking News >> U.N. Halts Aid to Myanmar After Junta Seizes Supplies

Send news tip to FOXNews.com

SUBMIT

Teen Survives 25,000-Volt Shock That Burned Off His Clothes

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

An English teen survived a 25,000-volt electrical shock from an overhead power line that burned off his clothes, the Daily Mail reported.

The shock sent Sam Cunningham, 16, 25 feet off a railway bridge and onto the tracks below. He had been retrieving a rugby ball on a bridge near his home in Wigan, England, last Thursday when the current jumped from the electric railway lines to his steel-toe boots, according to the report.

He was knocked unconscious by the fall and all his clothes were singed off, the teen's mother told the Daily Mail.

Cunningham is being treated in the special burns unit at Whiston Hospital in Merseyside. He will need skin grafts but is expected to make a full recovery.

The teen is lucky to be alive.

"The current going through an overhead railway cable would easily be strong enough to kill somebody," Phil Mawby, a professor of engineering at Warwick University, told the Daily Mail.

"It would burn its way through the skin and in some cases stop a person's heart."

Click here to see a photo of Cunningham and for more on this story from the Daily Mail.

Fox News Video
ADVERTISEMENT
hot latin diet

ADVERTISEMENT

Advertise on Fox News Channel, FOXNews.com and FOX News Radio. Advertising Specifications (PDF). Jobs at FOX News Channel. Internships At Fox News (Deadline for summer applications: Feb. 29, 2008)

Terms of use. Privacy Statement. For FOXNews.com comments write to foxnewsonline@foxnews.com; For FOX News Channel comments write to yourcomments@foxnews.com

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. © 2008 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. All market data delayed 20 minutes.