When someone experiences an electric shock of both hands gripping a 230 v lamp, how is electricity moving through the person and what causes the shock to stop, the lamp to finally drop?

Question

While in Italy I grabbed a metal hotel lamp by its base with two hands. When trying to move the lamp, my hands latched down and I was involuntarily walking across the room trying to drop the lamp, which I couldn’t. The shock lasted 15-20 seconds (I stopped counting 10 anyway). I kept telling myself, drop the lamp! But of course I couldn’t. It finally fell out of my hands. I was sent to a cardiac hospital after and had mild tissue damage, burns, right thumb totally burned and swollen, confusion and a lot of difficulty breathing (stress, possibly) for days, but all heart measurements fine. I really want to understand what happened to me step by step, and if it was dangerous or just felt life-threatening. My mind was determined during the experience, counting seconds (I dunno why) trying to direct my hands to let go, but I thought I was going to die, for sure.

Answer 1

Hi Sarah H., You were lucky!

Sounds like you had some electrical current passing either from one hand through your body to the other, or through your hands, and out your feet into the floor ("ground"). Either case, what was happening to you was electically-induced tetany of your arm and hand muscles. Because your hand closure muscles are stronger than your hand opening muscles, the former won out, and you could not consciously force your hands open.

230 V current is perhaps not the governing thing; the current passed is what mattered. Yes, that was a serious matter; it could have desynchronized your heart causing a loss of circulation, loss of consciousness, and eventually death (especially if you had fallen still holding onto the lamp).

For this very reason, if you had to test a piece of metal (say, an Italian lamp!) to determine if it was energized, you would be better off doing it with the back of one finger. If your hand curls up from the shock, you will not be holding the item!

I don't expect that you wil repeat this experience, but you might have been able to swing the lamp against other furniture such that it was torn from your hands by the impact. You would have had no problem justifying any resultant damage, since it was an emergency, and the negligence was by the hotel.

-- Cheers, --Mr. d.