On Saturday 6th April, my loving, kind-hearted brother was cleaning windows for a customer in a seemingly safe domestic neighbourhood when he was electrocuted by a 33,000 volt overhead power cable which was dangerously close to the property without any insulation or warning signs. We believe the high voltage of the line caused the electricity to arc, causing a jumping affect which in turn passed through my brothers ‘insulated’ carbon-fibre water-fed pole.

 

The strike catapulted him meters away, blowing off his shoes and leaving him unconscious until found by the homeowner. Jason was airlifted to Southmead Hospital where he undertook the immediate emergency amputation of his left forearm and was placed in ICU under a sedative state.

 

Jason is a devoted husband to wife, Sara of 6 years and father to identical twin 18 month old girls as well as their 7 year old daughter. Described by many of those who have had the pleasure of knowing Jason as ‘the nicest guy you would ever meet‘, Jason is a keen fisherman, a charitable Freemason and an avid Arsenal supporter with an infectious laugh and a gentle, kind loving nature. Jason was working weekends to help support his family during the current cost of living crisis and works as a self-employed window cleaner in the Westbury, Wiltshire area. This incident has caused him to have life threatening injuries which will change the course of his life as well as his young family’s forever.

 

With electrocutions of this severity, we must take each day as it comes. Jason has already undergone 16 surgeries at the time of writing (6 May) which include the amputation to his left forearm and also the removal of 5 toes plus a significant amount of dead tissue, tendons and muscle from both of his legs which have rendered him unable to walk. Lower limb experts at Southmead Hospital are hopeful that they may be able to reconstruct Jason’s legs and feet to enable him to ‘walk’ but the extent to which he will be able to do this, unaided, is yet to be known. Jason’s journey so far has been an extremely turbulent one, with concerns for his internal organs especially his kidneys, as well as fighting off numerous infections and blood clots which placed him under critical risk during his time in the Intensive Care Unit.

 

As a family we are in awe of how strong my incredible brother is being. He has an extremely long road to rehabilitation ahead of him which will involve numerous surgeries, physiotherapy, the use of aids and prosthetics as well as counselling and psychotherapy.

 

We are lead to believe that Jason’s rehabilitation in Southmead Hospital will continue for many many months, leaving his wife and young family home without any generated income. Jason’s ability to financially support his young family not only whilst he is undergoing treatment in hospital, but also for the foreseeable future, is going to be extremely difficult, especially alongside the inevitable changes that are going to be needed to be made to his home to aid his mobility and his quality of life. There are also the costs of prosthetics, transportation, travel, and ongoing physiotherapy and treatments to consider. Naturally, given the extent of Jason’s life changing injuries, he will no longer be physically able to continue with his small cleaning business which he has spent over 2 years building himself.