Posted on 10/30/2005 5:51:37 PM PST by aculeus
A US pastor performing a baptism was electrocuted inside his Texas church when he grabbed a microphone while partially submerged, a church employee said.
The Reverend Kyle Lake, 33, was standing in water up to his shoulder in a baptismal in front of 800 people at University Baptist Church when he was electrocuted yesterday, said Jamie Dudley, a church business administrator.
Doctors in the congregation unsuccessfully performed chest compressions for 40 minutes, Dudley said.
The woman Lake was baptising was not injured, Dudley said.
Pastors at University Baptist Church routinely use a microphone during baptisms, Dudley said.
"He was grabbing the microphone so everyone could hear," Dudley said.
"It's the only way you can be loud enough."
About 800 people attended the morning service, which was larger than normal because it was homecoming weekend at nearby Baylor University, Dudley said.
Lake, who had a wife and three children, had been at the church for nine years, the last seven as pastor, Dudley said.
AP
The jolt could have come from several places. Perhaps the water rather than the microphone was electrified (as by leakage from heaters that keep the baptismal from getting cold). The microphone then being grounded provided the current path. Does the baptismal have underwater lights like a pool? Another source of current leakage. Someone using a cheater plug to plug a three-prong amplifier plug into an old two slot outlet, combined with electrical leakage existing in the amplifier's power supply. Or the amplifier plugged into a power outlet that has the ground prong wired to the hot side of the line. (Not even a GFCI can help in that situation.)
He should of known. Basic electricity says it is the "amps" that kill, not the voltage.
they just probably kept doing the resuscitation for 40 minutes... it was a "witnessed" arrest. The thing that folks don't realize is a lot of times with electricity, an area of the brain that controls that breathing is affected for longer than the cardiac muscle... that's why you keep plugging away with electrical injuries..... or so I've heard.
You being a gobbler again. I'm sure those who weren't the doctors helping did pray. So what?
The person that was to be baptised didn't get shocked. If they were already in, wouldn't it have got him/her too if it was the water.
The current would flow around them.
Baptizing without a license.
It might be very little if the mike was the electrified entity and the pastor was standing on a directly grounded object such as a metal drain cover. But it would not be zero.
Follow the thread.
Now, forgive me for stating the obvious, but if you want to send condolences to the family, then go ahead and send them to the family by FedEx, Western Union or snail mail, and don't tell us, we don't need to know, and not posture by typing anonymously on an internet forum "Condolences to the family", that the family is not likely to read and if it does it will likely to be offended by someone representing himself as, say, Revolting cat! sending condolences to it. Pleeeze!
Or vice versa, if the metal object was electrified from leakage. I assume you did take Electricity 101 in high school. (I is an electrical injunear)
I want to die in my sleep like my grandpa, not screaming an
yelling like the people in his car.Old old joke
De-fibrillation killed him. A church that size probably already has an AED and I doubt it took EMS 40 minutes to get there. They probably worked with him that long . He had Drs there. They could do anything an ER could at that point, most likely. He was probably flat lined.
A question, did they check the mike and baptismal to verify that yes, there was an electrical potential? Maybe he actually had a heart attack.
I meant if it was from something besides the microphone.
Good question. They didn't document what they witnessed.
very, very little. Not enough to kill.
Interesting question because if he collapsed upon seizing the mike, he AND the mike would have fallen into the water. And yes, then the potential for zapping the baptizee.
The only power going to a microphone should be +48V DC, referred to as phantom power. Would that kill someone? Or was there some sort of electrical failure?
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