Passed by a current of 14,000 volts

A newlywed dad will miss his son’s first birthday after he was struck by a 14,000-volt electric shock while trimming trees in Laurentians earlier this month.

“It’s very difficult for me too, but especially for him. He can’t see his boy. Hospitals are too dangerous for a small child, there are many bacteria, and Covid is coming back,” laments Lindia Lavallee, who married the victim at the end of September.

During his recovery, Ludovic Falardo will be separated from his baby Laurent for at least two months and will miss his first party on December 21.

The 27-year-old man was on his third day cutting trees on November 2 when he was electrocuted while cutting branches in a residential area in Mont-Tremblant.

Frozen by electricity

The Rivière-Rouge resident was in a basket about 7.5 meters above the ground when it came into contact with a Hydro-Québec low-voltage line.

We don’t know the exact trigger for the incident, but he was exposed to 14,000 volts of electricity for about ten seconds.

“The current was so strong it held him there and he couldn’t move,” Ms Lavallee said.

Mr. Fallardo finally threw himself down from the basket out of survival instinct.

In a coma

The damage has already been done: his left arm can now be amputated, while burns affect his shoulder and armpit.

A hole the size of a golf ball formed on his left buttock, touching his armpit.

The pain was so strong that Ludevik Falardo slipped into a coma for 24 hours.

He also underwent two surgeries to remove necrotic tissue from the incident.

According to his partner, 8% of the inside of his body was damaged.

“It can happen suddenly and it requires a lot of tests, because a life is precious,” insists Lindia Lavallee, a 24-year-old nursing assistant.

“The basic rule that we say and repeat is that when work has to be done, keep the person and equipment three meters away to avoid any danger,” said Caroline des Rosiers, strategic communications consultant at Hydro-Québec.

►In 2020, 976 men were electrocuted, up from 165 in 2019. Newspaper. 342 men aged 25 to 34 were affected.