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[Mike Sokol]

Here's the initial report. I'll update as new information is available.  http://www.nst.com.my/news/2017/03/224513/sound-technician-electrocuted-death-beaufort-religious-event

BEAUFORT: A sound technician was electrocuted to death while setting up a sound system for a religious event in Membakut, Beaufort, yesterday.

The victim had accidentally touched a live wire while setting up the sound system for a Mahrajan Kesenian Islam event, said Beaufort police chief Deputy Superintendent Azmir Abd Razak.

BEAUFORT: A sound technician was electrocuted to death while setting up a sound system for a religious event in Membakut, Beaufort, yesterday. Abd Syafrie Wandy bin Abd Asis, 36, an employee of Ming Sound System, was pronounced dead by doctors minutes after arriving at the Beaufort hospital following the 7.40pm incident. The victim had accidentally touched a live wire while setting up the sound system for a Mahrajan Kesenian Islam event, said Beaufort police chief Deputy Superintendent Azmir Abd Razak. The victim was immediately rushed to the district hospital by colleagues, but was pronounced dead on arrival, he added. Police have classified the case as sudden death, but an investigation is nevertheless being carried out.

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

Malaysia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Membakut

[Mike Sokol]

Malaysia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Membakut

Yes, and it appears to be typical UK style power with 230 volts on the mains. I wonder how this guy touched a "live wire", and if CPR was attempted.

https://www.adaptelec.com/index.php?main_page=document_general_info&products_id=215

[Frank Koenig]

Yes, and it appears to be typical UK style power with 230 volts on the mains. I wonder how this guy touched a "live wire", and if CPR was attempted.
https://www.adaptelec.com/index.php?main_page=document_general_info&products_id=215

I was in Malaysia in 2012, and while much of the infrastructure (roads, etc.) appeared first rate, even in rural areas, the approach to the "last meter" of electrical delivery was cavalier.

At the night market in Cota Kinabalu (pictured) there were hundreds of pop-up tents each with a single curly bulb (compact fluorescent) typically connected by a loose red and black wire of shoe string size. These wires disappeared into an amazing network of commercial and improvised outlet strips, and wads of e-tape. I never figured out how the power got from the utility to the outlet strips, but there wasn't an equipment grounding conductor to be seen. And yes, it's 240V.

We can hope that with the country's continued prosperity (4.4% GDP growth year-on-year) that electrical safety will soon follow.

Respectfully,

--Frank

[Jean-Pierre Coetzee]

Electrocuted to death... One day that word will be used correctly...

At least here in South Africa its illigal for someone to be able to touch a live wire without having to use a tool of some sort to open a door/enclosure.

I don't know if CPR is too useful in electrocution, as far as I know though most large venues should have a portable defib on scene so that might have saved him if it wasn't too large a shock...

Unfortunately this gives the religious scene a bad name as well, not that I don't think they cut corners.

[Mike Sokol]

I don't know if CPR is too useful in electrocution, as far as I know though most large venues should have a portable defib on scene so that might have saved him if it wasn't too large a shock...

Actually, CPR is very useful in electrocution just because it gives emergency personnel more time to arrive with a defibrillator. Even compression-only CPR is good to start immediately since it will extend brain viability to around 10 minutes or more. But without any kind of CPR your brain starts to die in 4 or 5 minutes. Of course, most large venues should already have an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) on site. So the first thing to do in the event of someone being rendered unconscious due to shock is call 911 and give them your location (at least in the USA), send someone for the AED (if you have one), and immediately begin CPR. If you are trained and can do full CPR properly which includes breathing, so much the better. But because the victim's blood was fully oxygenated up until they were knocked out, there's a big reserve of oxygen in their bloodstream that just needs to be circulated via chest compression to extend brain life by another 5 minutes or more.

Most low-voltage electrocutions (under 600 volts) should be survivable as long as CPR is begun immediately and an AED can be used within the first 10 minutes.

[Nathan Riddle]

Actually, CPR is very useful in electrocution just because it give emergency personnel more time to arrive with a defibrillator. Even compression-only CPR is good to start immediately since it will extend brain viability to around 10 minutes or more. But without any kind of CPR your brain starts to die in 4 or 5 minutes. Of course, most large venues should already have an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) on site. So the first thing to do in the event of someone being rendered unconscious due to shock is call 911 and give them your location (at least in the USA), send someone for the AED (if you have one), and immediately begin CPR. If you are trained and can do full CPR properly which includes breathing, so much the better. But because the victim's blood was fully oxygenated up until they were knocked out, there's a big reserve of oxygen in their bloodstream that just needs to be circulated via chest compression to extend brain life by another 5 minutes or more.

Most low-voltage electrocutions should be survivable as long as CPR is begun immediately and an AED can be used within the first 10 minutes.

That makes me want to take CPR training & get an AED for my sound company so much more. I would hate for something bad to happen to someone and a few hours of my time and some money would have saved them.

[Keith Broughton]

Electrocuted to death... One day that word will be used correctly...

Yep.
Killed...dead!

[Jean-Pierre Coetzee]

Actually, CPR is very useful in electrocution just because it gives emergency personnel more time to arrive with a defibrillator. Even compression-only CPR is good to start immediately since it will extend brain viability to around 10 minutes or more. But without any kind of CPR your brain starts to die in 4 or 5 minutes. Of course, most large venues should already have an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) on site. So the first thing to do in the event of someone being rendered unconscious due to shock is call 911 and give them your location (at least in the USA), send someone for the AED (if you have one), and immediately begin CPR. If you are trained and can do full CPR properly which includes breathing, so much the better. But because the victim's blood was fully oxygenated up until they were knocked out, there's a big reserve of oxygen in their bloodstream that just needs to be circulated via chest compression to extend brain life by another 5 minutes or more.

Most low-voltage electrocutions (under 600 volts) should be survivable as long as CPR is begun immediately and an AED can be used within the first 10 minutes.

I'm aware, I do have full first aid training myself, I was refering to the fact that if they didn't have an AED on site it wouldn't have helped anyway. In most 3rd world countries the chances of you getting paramedics to you in 10 minutes aren't great unless you are in a built up area. Although TBH a big event like this would need to have paramedics on site IMHO.

[Mike Sokol]

I'm aware, I do have full first aid training myself, I was refering to the fact that if they didn't have an AED on site it wouldn't have helped anyway. In most 3rd world countries the chances of you getting paramedics to you in 10 minutes aren't great unless you are in a built up area. Although TBH a big event like this would need to have paramedics on site IMHO.

I think I know enough to MacGyver one, but I really don't want to be put in that position. IIRC you just need to charge some big caps up to 400 volts DC or so and hook it up a couple of paddles. So a tube guitar amp could easily provide the required DC voltage and storage caps. But if you're not careful you could kill yourself in the process. Far better for a big sound company to have their own AED on the truck.

[Dan Mortensen]

Far better for a big sound company to have their own AED on the truck.

If you are considering buying one, I know the guy who does the audio for the Medtronics one and it is the only one with sound that you can hear and understand in any environment.

Those things are not passive devices, they have voice prompts to tell you what to do at every moment and simultaneously record the activity so the doctors trying to figure out what happened can listen and know for sure. They are really remarkable devices.

He was hired 20 years ago by them to improve the sound, and he has been diligently and cleverly working to use the 3/4" or whatever speaker and little 1 watt amplifier to maximize what is possible physically to accomplish in all environments, since they are used everywhere from quiet libraries to noisy casinos, airports, and inside helicopters. He has it tweaked so that it is audible in all those environments and not by overpowering them (since there's no power available). There is something like 200 languages in them, all clearly intelligible. I think they called his process "True Voice", and the others are all trying to catch up.

My understanding was that they are quite expensive but I don't know and haven't looked.

If you can afford it, it would be an awesome thing to have handy.

Mike you would not want to make one. The liability would be ridiculous. Commercial ones are rigidly controlled and tested, and that is a considerable understatement.

[Len Zenith Jr]

My understanding was that they are quite expensive but I don't know and haven't looked.

If you can afford it, it would be an awesome thing to have handy.

http://www.aedprofessionals.com/Philips-HeartStart-OnSite-Defibrillator-AED.html

Not too bad for a company to afford.

[Mike Sokol]

Mike you would not want to make one. The liability would be ridiculous. Commercial ones are rigidly controlled and tested, and that is a considerable understatement.

Oh definitely not. My statement was that the basic principals behind the process are really quite simple. However, the decision tree and implementation is very complex. Kid's don't try this at home.... 

[David Allred]

Oh definitely not. My statement was that the basic principals behind the process are really quite simple. However, the decision tree and implementation is very complex. Kid's don't try this at home....

What would the charges be?  Re-killing?  Man-slaughter after death?  Inappropriately charging a corpse? 
Would a good-Samaritan law protect you at all?

[Frank DeWitt]

What would the charges be?  Re-killing?  Man-slaughter after death?  Inappropriately charging a corpse? 
Would a good-Samaritan law protect you at all?

From a Thank you for trying to jail time depending on the state you live in and the race of the victim.

[Jonathan Johnson]

Mike you would not want to make one. The liability would be ridiculous. Commercial ones are rigidly controlled and tested, and that is a considerable understatement.

What would the charges be?

About a thousand volts 

(Yes, I know that's not what you meant. But I just had to say it.  And the unit of measurement for an electrical charge is the coulomb; I have no idea how many coulombs the caps in an AED hold.)

[Mike Sokol]

About a thousand volts 

(Yes, I know that's not what you meant. But I just had to say it.  And the unit of measurement for an electrical charge is the coulomb; I have no idea how many coulombs the caps in an AED hold.)

[Jean-Pierre Coetzee]

Here you are not allowed to perform CPR unless you are qualified of directed by a police officer/emergency personell/trained professional of some sort. You will be held liable, same thing with fire equipment, you should just let it burn unless you feel that you can pay for it out of your own pocket unless of course you are qualified then the state will assist you in the court case and you will likely be fine...

[John Roberts {JR}]

Here you are not allowed to perform CPR unless you are qualified of directed by a police officer/emergency personell/trained professional of some sort. You will be held liable, same thing with fire equipment, you should just let it burn unless you feel that you can pay for it out of your own pocket unless of course you are qualified then the state will assist you in the court case and you will likely be fine...

That ignores common sense... but sense isn't all that common when lawyers get involved.

JR 

[Mark Cadwallader]

South Africa's legal system is more closely related to the British legal system than the USA's system, in terms of the common law of torts.  That's the difference, IMO.

[Jean-Pierre Coetzee]

Its pretty easy to get around the law there. You just call emergency services let them know you know how to perform CPR and they will tell you to proceed but I agree its pointless. That time would be better spent on administering first aid and getting someone else to call.

[ProSoundWeb Community]