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The power to restore life Jim Craven photo Joe Dietz gets his wounded feet checked by a nurse, Janet Wolfgang, at his Medford home Friday. Dietz is an electrical lineman who died after 7,200 volts of electricity surged through his body in a February accident. His crew brought him back to life. Doctors expect 7,200-volt victim to make full recovery By Mark Freeman Joe Dietz never saw or felt the 7,200 volts of electricity that froze his body for 8 seconds of Feb. 28 on a White City street. "I remember, though, that I could hear the electricity, humming, and wondering when it was going to stop," says Dietz, 58, of Medford. "All of a sudden, it stopped." And that's when Dietz died, electrocuted beneath the power lines he and his fellow electrical-line crewmen were replacing that afternoon along Avenue C. But the horrific sights and smells of the voltage cooking their co-worker didn't stop Dietz's crew from rushing to action. Linemen Ross Leslie and Rich Crusos knocked out the power surge to Dietz's body, which then slumped to the arms of crew foreman Chris Canty. Canty then breathed into Dietz's lungs and pumped Dietz's chest to keep blood pulsing long enough for another dose of electricity -- this time, from a firefighter's defibrillator -- eventually to bring Dietz back from the dead. Now doctors expect Dietz to make a full recovery, and the 34-year veteran even expects to return to work later this spring. "He should be dead, or a vegetable," says Firefighter Bob Batte, whose defibrillator shock re-started Dietz's heart. "The fact that he's alive and going back to work in two months is a miracle." Dietz still suffers the lingering pains from burns on his hands and feet and a sore chest from Canty's CPR efforts. He awaits skin grafts on his left foot next week. But Dietz faces another task as well -- trying to adequately express his gratitude to those who saved him. "I was done," Dietz says. "I was dead. But the boys got me going again. "I've thanked them, several times," he says. "But we haven't really talked about it. The guys come over, and we're just happy to see each other." The Oregon Division of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the accident, and a report is expected late next week, says Chuck McFarland, who supervises the OSHA office in Medford. Almost four weeks after the accident, Canty says he's still shaken by the events of Feb. 28, and he still can sense the smell of electricity coursing through flesh. But Dietz and Canty will be even when they join again on the job. "He's our leader, we look up to him," says Canty, 28. "He thinks he owes us something, but we're just glad he's alive. We just want him to come back to work." The destructive power of electricity is something workers like Dietz and Canty live with so intimately that they all keep their CPR certifications current, just in case. "You know the possibility of electrocution is there, all the time," Canty says. "But it's not like we talk about it. You really don't think it's going to happen." But that changed at 2:20 p.m. Feb. 28, while the International Line Builders, Inc. crew was upgrading high-voltage power lines along Avenue C. Dietz, a 34-year veteran who operates a crane-like boom truck, was standing on the road shoulder while working the controls to hoist a large, heavy wire skyward to the poles. Leslie and Crusos, a short distance away, hoisted in a boom bucket up near the wires. Canty says Dietz apparently activated the truck's out-rigger supports, which lifted the truck off the ground and swung the boom just a few inches toward a 7,200-volt electrical wire. "Inches," Canty says, "is a lot in our business." The metal boom struck the hot wire, shooting its voltage down the boom, through the controls and into Dietz's hands. The high voltage forced Dietz's muscles to seize, scorching his hands and sending sparks arching out his fingertips as it rammed through his body. The charge tore through the soles of his feet, burned through his thick leather work boots and into the ground. Canty was standing on the ground when he saw the boom strike the wire. He dashed to the back of the truck, not expecting to see Dietz getting electrocuted -- or "energized," as journeyman linemen say. Canty yelled to Leslie and Crusos, who already were trying to pry the boom away from the hot line. Knowing he couldn't touch Dietz without getting electrocuted as well, he ran to get a 12-foot wooden pole in hopes of prying his friend free. A full eight seconds later -- "It seemed like an hour at the time," Canty says -- Leslie and Crusos pulled the heavy wire off the boom, stopping the electricity flow. Dietz slumped from the controls. "I caught him," Canty says. "He was still. I laid him on the ground. There was this terrible smell of burnt flesh everywhere. "I couldn't believe it was happening," Canty says. Canty's CPR training took over. He pulled Dietz's swollen tongue back and began blowing puffs of air through Dietz's nose, followed by heavy, rhythmic pumps to Dietz's chest. Within three minutes, Batte and other rescuers from Jackson County Fire District No. 3 arrived. They checked his vital signs ... nothing. Firefighters continued CPR, then Batte set the paddles from his portable defibrillator and sent a short shock into Dietz's chest, starting his heart beating again. What electricity had taken away, electricity had returned. "It's a miracle," Batte says. "Everything happened the way it was supposed to, and he survived." Within three minutes, Dietz was in a Mercy Flights ambulance headed to Providence Medford Medical Center, then on an air flight to the Oregon Burn Center in Portland. Dietz suffered burned hands and feet, with his left foot the worst. His lungs had lost some capacity, requiring him to sniff pure oxygen. But otherwise, he was fine. Batte telephoned Dietz in Portland three days later, and they chatted briefly about the ordeal. "No pulse, no respiration. He was dead," Batte says. "To actually get to talk to him, personally, on the telephone is amazing.'' On March 9, Dietz's wife, Jolene, drove him home, where Jolene now treats him daily as he recovers from his burns. Canty and the rest of the crew visit regularly, feeding Dietz only some of the details of the accident. Other than hearing the energizing hum, Dietz has no recollection of the accident. "I don't even remember going to work that morning," Dietz says. "It killed me, so I imagine that had something to do with it." Now and again, Canty catches himself sensing that awful smell. "It was the most terrible thing I've ever gone through in my life," he says. Canty credits Leslie and Crusos for breaking Dietz free from the electricity as a key in saving Dietz. Dietz credits Canty and Batte for bringing him back from the dead. Batte credits whoever taught CPR to Canty. Dietz can't say thank you enough. "I'm lucky," Dietz says, "in more ways than one." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA