Father of three thankful to be alive

DESPITE being nearly electrocuted and then falling 35 feet from a building, father of three Sherwyn Joseph, 41, is thanking the Almighty for sparing his life.

Joseph, who through his pain spoke to Newsday yesterday from his bed at the San Fernando General Hospital, sustained serious burns about his body after a steel rod he was holding came in contact with high tension wires, causing him to fall some 35 feet off a building. His co-worker, Brian Baptiste, who was also holding the end of the steel rod narrowly escaped being electrocuted. Joseph, Baptiste and another man were installing a steel roof on a house at St Mary’s Village on Thursday, when the incident occurred. Wearing a neck brace and with his chest covered with scars and dead skin from the burns, Joseph was surrounded by relatives and friends who visited him yesterday at Ward 3 of the hospital.

Recalling the frightening ordeal yesterday, Joseph said around 5.30 pm he was on top of the house assisting in putting up the steel roof. Joseph said Baptiste was standing on the ground below and handing him a length of  Z-Purlin (a metal part of the roofing), which Baptiste passed through a window of the house to reach Joseph. “Like it (the rod carrying the Z-Purlin) pass bad and when I take it up, the rod off-balance and touch some TTEC wiring  that was close to the house. I get shock for about a minute and after I let go and fall down. I don’t know what happened after because I blacked out,” Joseph said.