I spent part of my Thanksgiving Day in the Emergency Room due to an accidental electrocution. Long story, short, I was cleaning the vent hood over our stove and it started to come down. I was reattaching the electrical cable while putting it back up and, well, you can probably guess the rest.
I felt fine afterwards, other than my left arm hurting a bit. I casually mentioned it to my wife, which prompted her to look it up online, and she showed me an article saying that you should get checked out anytime something like that happens. Fortunately, the ER took great care of me. One EKG and a couple of blood tests later and they told me that there was no permanent damage.
You may be wondering why I'm sharing such a personal story with a bunch of people who I may have never met? Other than the conspicuous message of "things that I'm thankful for at this time of year", I think that it's an interesting way to reflect on what we do here at SimpleRisk.
We make risk assessments ever day, whether we know it or not. As soon as that vent hood came down, I could have immediately called a contractor, but a cost-benefit analysis at the time determined this was not an acceptable risk mitigation. It was Thanksgiving day, after all, and the likelihood of a contractor taking the job was incredibly low. Furthermore, I really wanted to get that vent hood back up, since we were actively cooking for company.
I could have gone to the laundry room and turned off the power at the breaker, but in the moment I assessed the likelihood of being electrocuted as "Unlikely", despite having told my wife "don't touch those wires" about 30 seconds earlier. I was the one who put the vent hood up and I knew full well what I was messing with. Ultimately, I accepted the risk, did it myself, and I paid the consequence.
This is why SimpleRisk exists. We help our customers to find these proverbial "wires that could electrocute them". Then, we help them to determine how likely it is that they will be electrocuted and how bad it could potentially hurt them. Finally, we help them to determine the most cost-effective ways to either prevent the electrocution from happening, or at least lessening the impact if it does.
As for me, personally, my wife told me that I'm no longer allowed to touch things that are plugged in and we hired a contractor to reinstall the vent hood a few days later. After over 20 years of marriage, I guess my wife has become a better risk manager than I am.
I hope your holiday season is shocking-ly bright and full of electrifying cheer! Stay grounded and enjoy the current festivities! (Enjoy the pun at my expense.)
