Short stories (Luck or something else)

I was working in Electronics lab, while in college; my first project of the day was to troubleshoot a bank of selenium rectifiers. They were enclosed within a metal control box with a grounded cable connected to the back of the box in my right hand. I had forgotten to remove the power, and the potential difference between my right hand and my left would be 4,500 VDC (Volts Direct Current) When the box separated I had negative 3,000 volts in my left hand, and positive 1,500 volts in my right. Three of my fingers on my left hand had pea sized holed burned in them. The heel of my thumb and the palm of my right hand were one huge burn. The lights in the lab dimmed, and a 15 amp fuse on the test panel blew. What had just happened was 4,500 VDC had just passed through my heart. Ok, so I’m a lucky guy, well let’s take a moment and review just how lucky I was. Your body operates on minute electrical impulses, similar to the ones that make a pacemaker work. The reason you can’t feel the potential on a 12V battery is because direct current causes your muscles in your hand to expand or contract, once and remain in that state. The reason you can feel a low AC (Alternating Current), is because AC causes your mussels to expand ‘and’ contract 60 times a second. That is why a 110V shock feels like a big Bee just stung you. If the valves in my heart had been closed rather than open for the length of time it took the fuse to blow, I would have been dead. So I had a 50/50 chance, and I’m lucky.