CHARLOTTE — A south Charlotte man is back home recovering after surviving a life-threatening electrocution while hanging holiday decorations.
Erik Kyshka was released from the hospital on Monday, one week after an overhead power line arced while he was installing lights.
The accident occurred while Kyshka and his friend Filip were attempting to move a ladder between a house and nearby power lines.
Kyshka went into cardiac arrest, but his friend and a neighboring doctor performed CPR on the scene until firefighters arrived and used a defibrillator to restart his heart.
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Dr. Nina Connors, a doctor who lives down the street from the accident site, rushed to help before emergency crews arrived.
“When someone is in that situation, you can’t wait for the ambulance to come; you have to resuscitate as much as you can. I immediately started chest compressions when I knew He didn’t have a pulse,” Connors said.
Doctors were initially uncertain whether Kyshka would survive the severe shock. After waking up in the hospital, Kyshka said he struggled to process what had occurred. “I saw the pictures when I looked when I first came there, like the first few days, and I was shocked. Like, is it me?” Kyshka said.
Recalling the exact moment of the shock, Kyshka added, “We were between the house and the wires. We were just moving the ladder to put up some Christmas lights, and it just shocked through the ladder.”
Now recovering at home, Kyshka must move gingerly as the electricity exited through his feet, and he remains sore from the chest compressions.
“I thank God, I’m doing much better than I could be,” Kyshka said. “Sometimes I wake up because of the pain in the chest and in the back and the wounds on the feet that I have. But sometimes I couldn’t sleep till 2 a.m. because I have so many thoughts.”
Prior to the incident, Kyshka worked as an entrepreneur hanging holiday lights for hire, but he said the accident changed his career path. “It showed me God more, because I see God right now even more in my life; it’s shown me his mercy to my life,” Kyshka said.
Looking ahead, he confirmed he will no longer do high-altitude installations. “What I think, I’m not going to go to the roof anymore; for now I’m stopping that,” he said.
As the holiday season approaches, the Charlotte Fire Department advises anyone working on a ladder to pay close attention to overhead hazards and always use a spotter.