A worker was seriously hurt when he received an electric shock while hanging Christmas lights on a tree in Wellesley, Massachusetts, on Wednesday morning, police said.
The contractor was rushed to the hospital from Falmouth Circle with life-threatening injuries after the incident about 10 a.m., according to Wellesley police.
“He’ll be pretty lucky if he survives,” said Wellesley Police Officer Tim Gover. “He took a big hit.”
The man was using a pole to string up the lights and it came close to or touched an electrical line atop a utility pole, according to police, which gave him a shock. He was on foot and circling this pine tree when it happened.
“The pole he was using was about 34 feet long, and it came in either close proximity or actually touched a primary line that was only a few feet from the tree,” said Gover. “And he got zapped from that.”
The victim, a 22-year-old man who works for NZ Power Wash in Framingham, collapsed.
A person who called 911 to report the injury said he was unconscious and didn’t appear to be breathing. A coworker was instructed to perform CPR, and when police officers arrived, they found him in apparent cardiac arrest.
Gover and his team used an automated external defibrillator, and on a third attempt, he got his heart beating.
He was rushed to Newton Wellesley Hospital, than taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, police said.
A coworker who witnessed the incident declined to comment, but said the man is recovering in the hospital.
OSHA, the federal work safety agency, is investigating what happened along with police and the Wellesley Municipal Light Plant.
“The Wellesley Police, Fire, and WMLP Departments extend our thoughts and prayers to the victim and his family during this tragic incident,” police said in a statement.