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Electrical Safety Symposium

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Invisible electrical burn or shock injuries are “absolutely unlike any other injury,” a leading medical expert told a Fleming audience recently.

Dr. Joel Fish, currently the medical director of the Hospital for Sick Children Burn Centre, is formerly medical director of the Worker’s Compensation Burn Specialty program and the founder and former Chief Medical Officer of the Electrical Injury Program at St. John’s Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto.

He is one of only about six doctors in Canada who are trained plastic surgeons, specializing in burn care.

Dr. Fish gave the keynote address on electrical injury prognosis and therapy at Fleming College’s second annual Electrical Safety Symposium held at the Sutherland Campus on Nov. 10.

While most burn injuries are flame or scald burns, visible and invisible electrical burn injuries are rare.

Outlining a case study for the students and staff in attendance, Dr. Fish spoke of a 44-year-old man who contacted 5,000 volts in the workplace. He felt unwell and went home. Eventually his wife took him to the emergency room at the hospital however he was sent home and back to work.

The man experienced numbness in his hands, post-traumatic stress disorder, muscle pain and memory difficulty. After seeing multiple medical specialists who could not pinpoint any specific medical diagnosis, he was referred to Dr. Fish.

Having seen many similar cases of invisible electrical burn injuries, Dr. Fish said he wanted to quit his position because he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the patients. He said it was his secretary who pointed out that all of these individuals experiencing electrical shock injuries had the exact same symptoms.

So Dr. Fish brought in place a system for these patients: neuro-psychological testing, official validation of the patients’ injuries, no more referrals to specialists, and rehabilitation.

The symposium also heard from Steve Whitehill, fire prevention captain with the Peterborough Fire Department, and Gavan Howe of Howe Brand Communications. Mr. Howe shared his research into communicating risk and safety issues to employers and employees undertaking electrical risk-taking.

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