SULTAN, Wash. — The wife of a man shocked by an electric fence during Tuesday night's storm is giving thanks her husband is alive, but he has severe burns and a long recovery ahead of him.
She says the horrible incident was “extremely terrifying for everyone”-- maybe everyone except for the man it happened to himself.
Deana Albers says her resilient husband Tim doesn’t remember the shock that almost killed him.
“I’m feeling thankful,” she told KIRO 7 outside Harborview in Seattle Wednesday. “I thank God that he’s alive, but he is alive, and we can deal with anything else.”
Tim went to check on cattle near his Sultan home during the storm and grabbed an electrical fence he had turned off.
He didn’t realize there was a downed wire laying on top of it.
“He couldn’t let go of the fence so one of our employees who was with him had to go get a pair of wire cuts and cut it,” Deana said.
It took that man a full minute to get the tool and then separate Tim from the fence.
Now Tim is in the ICU at Harborview with severe burns on his head, back, arms, and legs.
Deana says he’ll lose a few fingers, if not his entire right hand. But the father of three, grandfather of seven, former volunteer firefighter and husband of 42 year seems more worried about everyone else.
“Actually he’s doing really good, talking and making jokes and just kind of telling everyone it’s no big deal, crap happens, that sort of thing,” said Deana. “He’s joking around and trying to keep it light, I think more for everybody else than himself.”
Deana says Tim will be in the hospital about three weeks and will then need extensive rehab at home.
He has surgery on his hand Friday, and that's when doctors will determine what needs to be amputated.
KIRO
