The most common nonfatal injury from electric shock is which?

• A. Electrocution
• B. Shock
• C. Laceration
• D. Burns

Answer: (D)

Electric injuries from shocks most often show up as burns. When current travels through the body, the tissue resists the flow and the energy is converted into heat. That heat can burn the skin at the points of contact and can also damage deeper tissues along the path of the current. Arc flashes during a shock can cause additional surface and clothing burns. Because this heat-related damage is the most common direct injury from an electrical event, burns are the typical nonfatal injury you’d expect. Electrocution means death, so that isn’t a nonfatal outcome here, and a shock is really the electrical event rather than a wound. Lacerations are cuts from trauma, not a result of the electrical mechanism itself.