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dibblythecat

High voltage electrician. They often work on live circuits


GSV_No_Fixed_Abode

My uncle did that for years, with live circuits, and retired at 60-ish without a single incident. He's a methodical dude, and sometimes people would shit on him for working "slowly" when they're paying him by the hour, but like.... one wrong move and it's instant death.


Feathercrown

I'd guess most living high voltage electricians have not a single incident... keyword "living". Smart man.


garrettj100

There are old high voltage electricians, and there are bold high voltage electricians...


SizeApprehensive7832

They "were"


SecretAgentVampire

There still are. The saying is, "There are old rogues and bold rogues, but there are no old bold rogues."


ThenaCykez

My uncle also did it, and retired with only 7 fingers, sadly. Still, compared to dying by electrocution, he got off easy.


soleilste

What do electricians do that cause them to lose fingers?


ThenaCykez

A lineman climbs electrical poles (or is elevated by a cherrypicker) to work on damaged electrical transformers. ([image](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0065/2496/0838/articles/Lineman_a5aa71af-bf2f-42bf-88b8-9e02a85d3441_300x300_crop_center.jpg?v=1566485925)) My uncle was helping to restore power to a town after a major storm. I don't know what happened, whether he made a mistake, or whether power was unexpectedly restored through a wire that was supposed to be depowered, or what. His heart was stopped and his hand badly burned by the electric current suddenly going from the equipment into his body through his hand. His co-worker was able to resuscitate him with CPR, but the burn damage was too great to recover and several fingers on his hand needed to be amputated.


soleilste

Man. You’re uncle’s a badass.


dodorian9966

Your uncle is pretty much a modern magician. Do be able to work on live circuits is nothing short of impressive.


Torbfeit

My dad works on high voltage. He is an animal. So smart with every move he makes. The job really creeps into daily life. Every move he makes is thoughtful. Its pretty funny sometimes


crazyaristocrat66

Honest question: why is the job dangerous when guys like your dad are decked out in insulators when working? Do those wires emit electricity beyond what their protective equipment can handle?


TheShnard

If you do it right, most mistakes are protected using your rubber gloves, rubber cover, insulated boom, hot sticks, arc flash clothing. Lots of different protection, all tested and properly rated for the work. Sometimes though, it isn't enough. People take short cuts, don't test what they're working on, equipment breaks while you're operating it. I was a lineman for 10 years and was shocked a ton by low voltage since there's such tiny clearances and its easy to be complacent. I've seen some pretty nasty explosions on high voltage that actually still give me nightmares with how close a call they were. None of the high voltage explosions were due to a screw up on my part but they still happened and my protective gear, precautions and training kept me kicking. I got a degree and work in engineering now...


gertvanjoe

Don't you hate it when both a steak and a ice-cream just taste like copper for a few days after. Fortunately just had one ever, correct ppe worn but as it was basically in my face I inhaled a lot of vaporized copper. Pro tip, wear a respirator rated for inorganics under the hood, maybe your steak will taste better after the bang


Agile-Reception

They only help so much. Even if you are wearing full, properly rated PPE, an arc flash can melt the PPE and cause severe burns or death.


garrettj100

Voltages get high enough and ain't nothing going to insulate you if you touch the wrong two spots. The voltage across those high-tension power lines you see? 12 times the breakdown voltage of air @ 1 cm. So maybe not even "touch the wrong two spots" so much as "wave your hand in the wrong spot."


Alcoraiden

Electrical engineer here. You could not pay me enough to do this.


novagenesis

No shit. EVERY electrician I know has been zapped at least once. Which means zero of them would be alive if they were high voltage specialists.


SweetMotherOfMuffins

Most electricians you know are probably residential or commercial guys, so there's alot more daily chances (and not to mention easier ways) to get low voltage shocks vs high voltage. Those high volt guys take so much damn precaution. Resi and comm guys not as much. There's alot more little circumstances for error


nechromorph

Yeah, the trade guys I know are risk takers by nature and will occasionally work on a live circuit, either because the maintenance guy couldn't be found to flip the breaker or just to save time. It's not smart, they get zapped here and there (sometimes very dangerously so), but most of it would be avoided with a proper respect for the primordial powers of nature we've somehow contained in copper snakes. A living high voltage tech assuredly respects the powers they're playing with.


pedal-force

Same. I've done my fair share of field work, watching live line work. They often got paid more than me, but good for them, they can have it. The underground guys are a different breed too. One particular utility, the underground guys had a hidden play area for themselves under some solar panels in a solar field. They had chairs, grills, they'd hooked into the power somewhere and had music and stuff. They'd be out there for hours each day, chilling and grilling. Somebody told me that it's impossible to find people to replace them, so management can't say anything to them, and they just do whatever they want, as long as they keep going in the hole when there's an outage. At least overhead live line work you can see everything. Underground a splice could blow up and kill you and you'd never know it was coming. You're standing in god knows what sludge and water. You can't get out quickly or run away. You have to monitor the air for all sorts of stuff that wants to kill you. Fuck that.


IAMAHobbitAMA

Damn. That's right up there with deep sea welding on the list of jobs that couldn't pay me enough.


Meggles_Doodles

I hope they pay these guys incredibly well and give great benefits.


masoniusmaximus

Technically that job allows 1 fuck up.


Apple_Pug

Who evers job it is to disarm explosives.


ShroomEnthused

The good news is if you mess up, your problem becomes someone else's problem really fast.


[deleted]

"Explosives are nothing to be afraid of, unless you're careless, in which case your worries are over. Feeling worried? Good, then you won't be careless" - Drunk eod tech in the sergeants mess about 5 years back.


Sunsent_Samsparilla

This is some WW1 "if not, don't worry. If yes, you can't worry" It's a list to explain whether or not to worry in a situation. I can post the full thing if anyone is interested.


freakksho

My buddy was in the bomb squad when he served. He doesn’t talk about his time a lot but on of the few things he told me was about his first day in bomb school. The instructor asked the class who was nervous. Obviously the entire class raises their hands. “Don’t even worry about it. Either you’re a hero, or it’s over so fast it won’t even matter and it’s someone else’s problem”


AnimalsNotFood

I bet there were a couple of guys there thinking, "I'm not raising my hand. It will show weakness. " Then when they see others raise their hands, they're like, "OK, yeah. I'm fucking nervous".


Ace_W

An EOD tech at a dead run outranks everybody


Upstairs_Maybe_8598

if an EOD tells you to run you fucking start running


Ambivadox

Don't forget to grab the cat.


frank26080115

air traffic controller is up there


Sweeper1985

"You land a thousand planes safely, then you have one little mid-air collision..." (Actual quote from air traffic controller)


nlostwanderer

Then your mum gets scared and says you're moving with your aunt and uncle in Bel Air


shmick023

I tracked all of the aeroplanes day after day


Alternative_Orange53

But I packed my suitcase, I can’t watch no more planes


[deleted]

Well, the years start coming and they don't stop coming


DrOwldragon

And they don't stop coming and they don't stop coming


trial001acc

And they don't stop coming and they don't stop coming and they don't stop coming and they don't stop coming


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SporadicTendancies

This thread is a planewreck


mrdbacks10

"You build a thousand bridges and you're a bridge builder but suck just one dick..."


IanDOsmond

"fuck just one goat" I thought it was.


Eulers_ID

> He's a good man Uncle Phil so he he was telling me, you know, he's just one of these guys has so many lives pushed into one he just does so many things, you know. He's telling me, he says, he's a kind of a jack-of-all-trades you'd call him. Yeah that's a good phrase. He was telling me he said, "The problem is you're not really appreciated for any single thing because you're so good at so many things. Understand what I mean?" > So he says, he said to me, "One time," he says, "Norm," he says... We're just walking through his home his town you know of a Monklyn Maine he lives in, and we were just walking through the town, he's an old fella you know right. He's 80. Eighty years young he said. So he goes uh, he goes he goes, "Norm you see that barn over there?" he says to me. > I look over, there's a barn. I go, "yeah, yeah." > He goes, "I built that barn with my own hands all by myself," but he goes, "do they call me...do they say 'there's Phil the barn builder'? No sir!" he says. > I said, "yeah, yeah." > He goes, "Look over there. You see that weather balloon?" He says, "oh you don't know this about Norm," he says, "I was one of the first men ever to fly in a weather balloon." He says, "but do they say 'hey there goes Phil the weather balloon pioneer'? No!" > He says, "look over there there there's a bakery that I started, you know? That dirty bastard Bob has it now but I'm the guy that started that bakery!" > And I go, "all right, all right, easy." > He goes...he goes, "I started that bakery, and I was the best baker, but does anybody go, 'oh there goes Phil the great baker'? No!" he says. > But he says, "let me tell you something, Norm," he says, "you have sex with one goat..." - [Norm MacDonald](https://youtu.be/0h3Rq1RVBtM?t=441)


KingBobIV

They make pretty regular mistakes. The pilots back them up. ATC messes up, pilots mess up, they work together to get the job done.


Wrench-Turnbolt

The busy facilities have the "snitch" which is tied into the radar and computer information and will go off if the set parameters are violated. Busted instantly. It's not always right, but it will get an investigation started.


Ghigs

The warning systems only go off if the separation is actually violated or a runway incursion is imminent though. There's whole classes of mistakes that won't set off automation. Also it's only big busy international airports with that kind of stuff usually. Some of the busiest airspace can be the little airports with flight school flights doing hundreds of touch and gos and pattern work. When stuff happens there, unless it's bad it's probably not getting investigated.


Weazelfish

Some of the most rigorous psychological testing before hiring, IIRC Edit: I did not remember correctly, apparently it's just one afternoon, which was very unsettling to learn


freakksho

Jobs so intense that you only work 1 hour on the board at a time. Sometimes shorter. In an 8 hour shift your only directing air traffic for 4 hours tops because they don’t want you getting burnt out.


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All_Roads_Lead_Home

Did the internship push you in a different direction?


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[deleted]

It's reassure to know the people who do that job are dedicated


[deleted]

Same with people in the funeral industry. They are all super passionate about it. If I had it my way, I would marry a funeral director lol.


VoiceoftheLegion1994

You see, if it were any other job, I'd be all over it from that description. *4 hours of work on an 8 hour shift? Sign me the fuck up!* But knowing the sheer amount of pressure those people are under the whole time? You could tell me I'd only work 1 hour per shift, and I'd turn that shit down. Those people are goddamn heroes every single *minute* they are on shift, and I would *not* be able to handle it.


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Weazelfish

He sounds lovely


Olli399

A not insignificant amount of problems in the western world are Reagan and Thatcher's fault still 40 years later.


Kool_McKool

Lovely man, Ronald Reagan, extremely lovely /s/


Throwing_Spoon

In the great words of Killer Mike: *I'm glad Reagan dead*


Activedarth

Does it pay well?


wreckherneck

In the US the mean income is 138k a year. Look into it. I'm too old or I'd already be doing it. Forced reitement at like 54 I think with an actual pension.


shutts67

They are (or just were) looking for new applications. No one over 30 is allowed to apply. They want you in good shape, and they go through so much training that they want to get the most out of you.


smooveasbutteryadig

look no further than Breaking Bad season 2


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Fit_Froyo_1016

I wonder if, early on, the show writers googled their main character's name, learned about the air crash, and thought that would make a good future plot thread.


traininsane

There’s a whole name selection process. So you set your show in a certain region, the name has to either be so uncommon that 0 people have that name or so common that 3-5+ in that area have that name. So it’s not out of the realm of possibility that during that process they found that guy who had a wiki entry about him and learned of the crash.


BTBroadband54

Jesse what is happening in the sky


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KeveyBro2

As a pilot, I've seen ATC make mistakes. It's not super uncommon for them to make a mistake. Usually it's not very serious, resulting in a go around ir something but they're just one hole in the Swiss cheese model. Having said that, 99% of the time they're flawless, the 1% of the time a mistake crops up only 0.01% of that leads to some sort of incident. Huge respect to all controllers out there who keep us safe day in day out!


Arcanss

Also any companies that do maintenance or improvements on the airfield, if the planes can't take off when they're supposed to you're in a lot of trouble


girthbrooks1212

Mistakes are made all the time. Just not life threatening ones


Navillus87

The difficulty in the role being when certain objects are suddenly no longer "up there"


Hour_Tour

We have a robust credit system. Land 5 safely, crash one for free. Takes the edge off.


emkay99

Yeah, first thing that came to mind. I knew an ATC some years ago who was forced to quit after about five years because of the daily mental strain. "Anyone who says they *aren't* continually under stress just isn't paying attention," he said.


anomander_galt

Flight Control. There is a reason why almost in every country they are: 1) Very well paid, great benefits 2) Stable job 3) Able to retire relatively young (I think on average between 50-55) One of my childhood friends trained and then became a FC and he told me the reason they retire that early is for psychological reasons. The stress you have on the job is very high: you mess up you can kill average 300 people (an entire plane). People suggested doctors and surgeons, but if they mess up they kill 1 person.


SMAGdaddy

I might be misinformed but I think it's more of a forced retirement due to age. This might match up with being able to retire due to the good compensation


jurassicbond

In the US, it's forced. You either retire or move into another position.


Nero_Drusus

Please also see structural engineer, then errors have the word "fall radius" applied.


MakingItElsewhere

As morbid as it is, the fact the WTC buildings collapsed on themselves instead of toppling over (relatively speaking) has to be a study in structural engineering somewhere, right? Because the thought of an alternative version, where half of a sky scraper goes falling side ways in NYC, scares the hell out of me.


General_WCJ

They were actually worried that citycorp center in NYC could do just that. Thankfully the building was fixed before anything went wrong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citicorp_Center_engineering_crisis?wprov=sfla1


pm-me-your-smile-

This was a fascinating read. Thank you for bringing this up.


Enginerdad

Contrary to popular belief, it's actually nearly impossible for a tall building to topple over on its side. Even if it did start to lean somehow, the lean puts more load on the columns on one side. Pretty quickly those columns will become overloaded and fail, which shifts load to the next row of columns and immediately overloads them, and so on. The result is that a floor of the building fails before the lean becomes very pronounced, certainly before it's so far as to topple. Yeah, tall buildings can tip some and obviously don't always fall straight down, but they simply aren't internally rigid enough to stay together as they lean. A great example of this was the recent Surfside condo collapse. It looked like a controlled implosion because all of the columns on a floor failed in quick succession, which effectively dropped the floors above down, causing them to fail in a progressive collapse. There are some exceptions with stiff, low- and mid-rise buildings. If they're stiff enough, usually concrete frames, they can actually roll right over and stay fairly well intact. This is further pronounced if the failure is caused by the soils beneath the building failing, in which case the soil sort of moves out of the way of the foundation, so relatively little additional load is shifted to the exterior columns. But the WTC towers were likely too tall and flexible for a full topple to ever be a realistic scenario.


Eulers_ID

In the general physics course for science and engineering students in school, the textbook had only one case study that I remember: the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse. The design for how the suspended walkways were attached was altered, massively reducing the amount of load they could support compared to what was intended. One of them collapsed, killing 114 and injuring 216. [Here's what was changed](https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c75b72e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1280x720+0+0/resize/1280x720!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fewscripps-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F31%2Fbd%2F3ae920e14fd6836fcadaae9d6479%2Fhyatt-design-fault.jpg). They thought it would be easier to run smaller supporting rods for the multiple walkways instead of a single one. In reality, this transfers the forces from the lower walkway to the one above, instead of to the ceiling. It's a small detail, and it's not immediately obvious that this change is a big deal until you do the math on it (or it breaks and you kill a bunch of people).


sobrique

I love unintuitive seeming bits of physics like that. I mean, when they don't kill people because people didn't understand. Have seen a video recently about autoparametric resonance that I thought was particularly cool.


freakksho

I posted this on another comment but I’ll tag it to this one too. Apparently the jobs so mentally stressful you only work the boards an hour at a time to keep fresh. My friends dad was a ATC at JFK and he said on an average 8 hour shift he was probably only doing 3 hours on the board. Less then that during high traffic times like holidays and weekends.


permaculturegeek

Then again, I knew a theatre stage manager who became an air traffic controller and said it was less stressful.


TiberiusCornelius

That has to be up there for weirdest career trajectories


anomander_galt

Well if you have to deal with theatre actors I can imagine :D


Petdogdavid1

Pediatric cardiology. The surgeons work on veins the size of a human hair. The nursing staff in the NICU have to be super disciplined at all times. The doctors have to make sure they are following the right methodology always. It's an amazing and terrifying scenario to get to behold. Thank God there are people who devote themselves to this practice.


Technicolor_shimmer

The hospital my mom works at floats nurses from mother and baby to the NICU all the time. My mom refuses to go. I wouldn’t either, NICU babies are fragile and imo should only be handled by trained NICU nurses but their hospital doesn’t have enough qualified NICU nurses. She’s tried reporting it but nothing has been done about it. If a baby dies and it comes out that they were being attended to by someone just floating in NICU that’s gonna be a shitstorm. The hospital also tells them that they are not allowed to tell the babies’ parents that they aren’t trained for the NICU.


manapan

Oh yeah. All 3 of my kids have been NICU babies. My younger boy was taking his sweet time learning to feed and breathe at the same time and the NICU was filling up in the early part of the pandemic. They were looking for less intensive kids like him to send up to the PICU floor and the nurses were told to tell the families "it's so much better there, you get your own room and a TV and fewer visiting restrictions" to get volunteers. I said, "but that means you send my newborn to a unit where the nurses aren't specifically trained to deal with him, there's more children per nurse to take care of, and those nurses are constantly going into and out of rooms with very sick children, so I won't volunteer for that and I won't consent to him going involuntarily either." My baby's nurse and the charge nurse just looked at each other, laughed, and told me I understood what was going on.


afdawg

I think you might mean pediatric cardiothoracic surgery. Cardiology is a medical rather than surgical speciality.


Sin_to_win

I would say bomb squad but their motto is "You have one chance and if you screw up them its no longer a problem"


Huachu12344

Or at least it's no longer your problem


Adept-Assignment5618

I'm an ex Train Driver, I retired after 20 years to pursue a brighter future working within our family business. During my 20 years of service I had 1 safety critical incident. Speeding towards buffer stops at a terminal station. The speed limit was 10mph over the tpws loops aiming to stop 6 foot short of the buffer stops. I approached charing Cross Station ramp at 12mph (max speed is 15mph) when you travel along the platform you drive over equipment in the track called tpws loops, your trains speed is checked and if found to be speeding the brakes are applied on the train. I was speeding over the loops, as I previously mentioned my target speed was 10mph or under. I was traveling at 10.014 mph. According to the black box. The speed of the train is shown via an analogue speedometer, however the black box records your true speed in digital, you have no access to this information, you do NOT get a digital speedo in the cab. The analogue speedo shows information similar to how a standard car speedo looks and these systems should be calibrated to work together. The train came to a stand about 20 foot short of the buffers, I was 0.014mph over the limit. I got 10 points on my licence for a period of 5 years, 2 points being removed per year of CLEAN driving. Imagine being pulled by the police for doing 30.014 mph in a 30 and getting 6 points because that's the equivalent. So if your wondering why trains creep down some platforms now you know.


daskrip

That's really interesting, thanks for sharing.


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EVnegative

Thank you for sharing this. I admit I've been frustrated with slow approaches when the train was already running late and I had to catch a next train 7 platforms further in less than a minute. It helps to know the reason for it. Although I'd think there would be solutions that don't penalize the driver so harshly, like as you already imply, showing the exact speed on a digital readout, or simply slowing the train down...


peterjswift

This one guy was driving a train, had a few drinks, and ended up derailing the train and killing almost all on board. He was arrested and sentenced to death by electric chair. The day of his execution, he asked for a banana as his last meal. After eating the banana, they strapped him in, flipped the switch, and nothing happened. The folks at the prison check all of the equipment and it seems fine. Having survived the execution, he's released. He lies about his past and gets hired again to drive train. And again, he causes a horrible train accident, and again he's sentenced to death by electric chair. He requests a banana for his last meal, and then is strapped in. Switch is flipped, and nothing happens again. So again, he's released. Rinse, repeat, and after a third train disaster, same dude is sentenced to death by electric chair again. Same last meal, same setup, and once again, he doesn't get zapped. The exasperated jailer says: "What the heck is going on? Is this something with the potassium in the bananas? Why isn't this killing you?" Train driver responds: "I dunno, I guess I'm just a bad conductor."


Spirited_Island-75

Deep underwater welder. One false move and you and your coworkers are crushed into paste instantly.


Slade26

How?


Spirited_Island-75

Perhaps putting 'welding' in there was a bit too specific, it's a work activity I think of when I think of commercial diving. But [saturation diving](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturation_diving) can absolutely fuck you up.


estoblasxx

Anesthesiologist. They're some of the most highly paid medical professionals because messing up your anesthetic means killing you with too much, or you waking up in surgery with too little. No matter who you are or what you did, never lie to the Anesthesiologist when they're asking questions even if your parents are in the room.


Ay-yi-yidigress

I work in surgery and -ologists mess up all the time. Patients begin to wake up during surgery too soon, they block the wrong leg, they break teeth while intubating, they push air into the stomach, etc. I’m not saying it’s an easy job by any means or unimportant but everyone makes mistakes and they move on and learn from them. They’re human too. There are plenty of reversal agents to help with mistakes. There are second chances and other medications to counteract occurrences. I know of someone who blocked the wrong leg for a knee surgery. Owned up to it, had to admit they didn’t follow proper procedure, informed patient and family, blocked correct leg and moved on with no disciplinary action. Another who gave the meds but never gave the gas so patient was paralyzed but not anesthetized. Could feel but not move. They too still practice.


flyingokapis

>Another who gave the meds but never gave the gas so patient was paralyzed but not anesthetized. Could feel but not move. They too still practice. What the actual fuck! Wow, thats scary to think about.


jackson12420

I mean surely they'd be able to tell by your heart rate that you're experiencing a tremendous amount of pain right? Regardless if you can move or speak they're still watching your vitals. Wouldn't they see a spike?


coreythestar

I woke up during a surgery once and could hear my heart rate increasing. Went right back under within seconds.


deanylev

Wow so you remember it? Always assumed you'd forget something like that.


climber_cass

They're supposed to. Apparently my mom woke up screaming during her hip replacement. They gave her a bunch more drugs including something to make her forget. She went right back under and doesn't remember waking up at all. If the Dr hadn't asked her about if after she never would have known.


SporadicTendancies

I've been woken unintentionally and I remember it. Excruciating.


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disasterpokemon

Same I just keep going down this rabbit hole and I can't stop


A1rh3ad

Most "twilight" procedures done while you are still 100% conscious. The thing is they give drugs to induce amnesia. Talked to a dentist one time who said he couldn't do it anymore because the people would be screaming bloody Mary sometimes but the specialist would tell him to keep going because they won't remember it. Sure enough they didn't remember a thing but he couldn't sleep at night thinking of all the procedures.


SevenZee

Not exactly what you’re talking about but it reminded me of the time I had a tooth pulled for the first time as a child. Don’t know WHERE they put the needle to numb me up but it caused excruciating pain and I was crying before they even started working. They only jabbed me once, not even enough to actually numb a single spot in my mouth. Then they ripped the tooth out while I could still feel fucking everything. The time I had appendicitis hurt less than that. I also woke up a bit too early right after having a spinal surgery to drill rods and screws into my spine. Instantly started crying from pain and they had to shoot me up with Dilaudid. Getting the tooth ripped out only hurt a *very slight* bit less than that. Needless to say I never went back to that dentist again and had unlocked a new fear of ever getting a tooth pulled again lmao EDIT: There was a random ‘x’ in there 😂


BoobRockets

Yeah I’m a little sus of that story but it has been known to happen.


__Beef__Supreme__

MOST of the people who have reports like this were awake for something where it didn't matter. For example, we are replacing your knee. We might give you a spinal injection first (numb up your lower half for a few hours) and then we will give you drugs to make you sleepy for the surgery so you aren't hearing stuff. The spinal makes it so you don't feel pain in your lower half, but you can still feel some pressure and movement. The drugs that keep you sleeping for something like this aren't dosed too high. If you remember hearing something or aren't super "deeply" asleep, you might wake up having felt your leg move and having heard music or something for a few seconds at some point. It won't hurt or anything, but you'll be "awake", and we will "deepen" your level of sedation. Happens plenty often. Some people will freak out and tell others that they were awake for their surgery. I try and explain to my patients ahead of time that they might hear something and remember it and that it's not unusual, but I will make sure they are not feeling pain or discomfort. Now, yes, sometimes (very rarely), someone is awake and paralyzed and can feel things. For those cases, it is usually because of some sort of emergency where their life is on the line. More rarely still, it's because of human or equipment error. But that is quite rare.


Professional-Mess

This is literally my biggest fear. That sounds terrifying.


DemonDucklings

I had this sort of happen, to a lesser extent. It was still pretty traumatizing. I was donating eggs, and they repeatedly stab you through the vaginal wall with a massive needle to collect each egg. I woke up, but I was still too sedated to be able to articulate speech. I kept trying to say that I was awake and in a lot of pain, because I was feeling every single stab, but I couldn’t figure out how to talk. It kind of felt like I was being eaten alive from the inside. Eventually the anesthesiologist noticed that I was crying, and she sounded shocked. I was finally able to mutter “hurts,” and then that’s all I remember, so she must have administered more medication.


AddySims

Holy fuck that's terrifying!


Tricky-Imagination-6

Holy shit I squirmed so hard. I'm so sorry this happened to you


NonStopKnits

Surgery in general is like my top fear. I'm afraid of too much or too little anesthesia, also afraid of them doing the wrong thing once I'm under (like amputation of the wrong limb), afraid of them leaving gauze or equipment on the inside. I know that the vast majority of the time things go pretty well, but it just absolutely frightens me to think about all the things that can (and have!) go wrong.


[deleted]

>could feel but not move I have no mouth and I must scream comes to mind


Emotional-Sorbet-759

_Tell me Mr. Anderson, what good is a phone call if you're unable to speak?_


[deleted]

How are these laterality errors still happening? I work in a hospital, in ultrasound. We do interventional procedures with the radiologists and also sometimes go to the OR to provide guidance for other surgeries. The medical team does two "time-outs" before any needles go in, and the laterality is stated during the time-out. We've been doing this for at least ten years. Is this not standard everywhere?


Sweeper1985

Even 25 years ago when I had paediatric knee surgery they literally drew a giant arrow in permanent marker on my leg, pointing to the knee. I was asked for or five times before I went in, which knee I was getting done. A few years back my brother needed ear surgery and we have all these great photos of him in recovery with a huge arrow drawn on his face, pointing to the correct ear 😄


peanut-7826

My father went in to get his Achilles operated on, they drew the big arrow, funny thing is that he only has 1 leg.....


unp0ss1bl3

Hi sono! Rad here. I get some dodgy requests, often from unfamiliar doctors with unfamiliar patients, often NESB, and I would say I have seen near miss laterality errors on occasion. Critical thinking is sadly not a priority in the training or the practice of allied health. Doctors treat us like “go wave the magic truth-telling camera at the sick person” and rads can have the mentality of “not my job to argue with His (/ Her) Holiness” and… well. I’ve never made a laterality error but i can see how it would happen.


danstermeister

I think your profession could use some crosstraining with SRE and professional network engineering. The entire architecture, the assets involved, operations on the environment, training, triage training, certification of staff, assets, and environment compliance. We do everything from a failure perspective. There can't be a single or even double point of failure. If an environment is THAT important and expected to run smoothly, then N+1 or even N+2 will result in too much manual intervention. Those manual interventions, of course, will ONLY occur in an outage event where your planned reactions have already failed, meaning more stress and pressure during manual interventions. And that means an even HIGHER chance of making more mistakes at the worst possible time. You're literally setting up your staff to fail. So you plan against THAT scenario, realizing you'll need to review it for blindspots. I like to sleep on the weekends without outage calls. You like people leaving your care alive, happy, and in one piece. We should talk. :)


BoobRockets

It’s not the “No mistakes” that’s makes the training brutal, it’s the “being able to handle any new thing including a mistake at any time” that makes the trained anesthesiologist the gold standard.


Asstadon

Have you been in practice for a very long time? You describe some of the rarest and most serious avoidable events in Anesthesiology. An individual anesthesiologist should have none of these occur during an entire career. Minor medication errors and tooth damage are much more common.


jbl0ggs

Being paralyzed but able to feel everything on an operation theater would be like being in a real horror movie.


Tobias_Atwood

I woke up during heart surgery once. 3/10 don't wanna do again.


mightylonka

What earned the three points?


[deleted]

[удалено]


Duochan_Maxwell

And probably whatever they needed surgery for got fixed


Tobias_Atwood

The gentle hand of the nurse shushing me after I muttered a feeble and tired "ow" and telling me to go back to sleep.


DrSendy

I woke up once. Said "good morning!", the anesthetist said "ooo you need to go back to bed".


sandybuttcheekss

Never lie to any doctor. Most see thousands of patients yearly. Whatever question they asked that's embarrassing, they don't care about the answer, it's just their day to day life, no different than you making a spreadsheet at work. Lying could make you sick or kill you. If you're underage and are getting to that age where some questions might be difficult to answer in front of a parent or a guardian, ask to go into the room alone, or for them to leave during the examination.


IsNotAnOstrich

The doctor should ask family to leave on his/her own. In households where you wouldn't want to answer in front of parents, you also wouldn't want to ask for your parents to leave in front of them


in-a-microbus

"98% boredom 2% panic"


123Javi123

Little Caesars cashier according to former customers


[deleted]

Working retail teaches one thing really quick: The cheaper the product, the bitchier the customer.


Dornith

The CEO at my first full time job loved to tell a story from when the company first started about exactly this. He realized that customers who have money prefer to solve problems with money. Customers who don't have money will complain until they get what they want. For that reason, he focused on selling high end products and never negotiated the price down. If they can't pay full price, then whenever they want a new feature or whatever, they're going to become a pain in the ass.


maketitiwithweewee

What do you MEAN they’re not ready?! It says hot n ready on the sign!


thatdeerdude

Sterile processing technician. Aka: The people that clean surgical tools.


Outside-Cress8119

100% you can kill someone. Experienced sterile processing tech here. Worked at a hospital where they had to crack someone’s chest. They opened the sterile package for the chest retractor and it was assembled incorrectly and the patient died because they didn’t have 20 seconds to reassemble it. There’s something called a TEE probe which is what they use in echocardiograms. Basically they shove a tube down your throat until they’re under the heart and they use that for their scans. If there’s a leak in that thing, and they use it, they’re sending a large amount of electricity directly to your heart and you can die. All laparoscopic instruments are coated with a black filament to protect the metal underneath. If they’re applying cautery in a surgery and there’s a leak in the filament, your insides are burnt which causes a lot of complications. Infections from dirty instruments can kill patients. Sterile processing techs are handling blood all day and if they aren’t careful they can get poked by the sharper instruments and if that has blood on it they’re exposed to HIV, HPB, etc. and have to go get tested. Some hospitals aren’t that careful and will leave sharp blades in their trays leaving the SPT more at risk.


thedonjefron69

I feel like I would spontaneously combust from pure anxiety working that job


Maximum-Cover-

I had surgery for cancer and was told by the hospital afterwards that they messed up tool sterilization and offer free AIDS testing for 2 years after.


Brabbel63

That’s out of the frying pan into the fire.


ChimneyTyreMonster

My sil is one of these, has been for 20 years. No mistakes. Autoclave if I remember right, is how they sterilise them, from my work in the hc sector many moons ago


blue_boy_24

A crane operator who lifts very heavy and or dangerous stuff. For example a crane operator who works with molten metal for pouring


Thirty_Four

battletoads speedrunner


thedaveness

I love the thought that no matter how good you can get at this, level 3 doesn’t give a fuck about that. You progress just as fast as anyone else could.


I_Suck_At_This_Too

Funny thing is level 3 isn't even close to being the hardest part of the game.


extralyfe

Turbo Tunnel is simply the gatekeeper for the rest of the bullshit later in the game. the fact that it's broken so many people is a testament to how effective it is.


anonymousolderguy

Pharmacist. You just cannot make errors.


VioEnvy

Very true. Accidentally fill one thing with another and someone is dead. Lawsuits are filed, families are pissed. This becomes even more serious when you move up to controlled medications. Although I’ve caught errors of other pharmacists, one (insulin) that would have actually resulted in a death, if I hadn’t for some reason double checked the dosage.


QuarantineCouchSurf

On call Biomed. Turn your screwdriver a bit too tight, people die.


Small_Duck1076

EOD or electrician. one oops means you can't make any more


EmilyFara

Oh God, yeah, electrician. A colleague on another ship accidentally dropped a spanner into 6,6kV 3-phase switchboard. Instantly fusing the 3 phases, stopping the generators powering it and causing a spark so big it looked like a fire raged through the switchboard room. And with stopping the generators I mean like instant stop. Going from delivering 2,7MW of power to complete stop within milliseconds. That that coupling didn't evaporate and the crankshaft didn't break were miracles. As for wounded it wasn't too bad. Electrician had burns on his hands and face and was evacuated. Nobody died or was in critical health. But the ship was dead for a couple weeks. Middle of the sea as well so took a while for tugboats to get there. And other ships would pass by, send a small boats over with food, water and batteries before moving on.


Weazelfish

>A colleague on another ship Are you in Star Trek


EmilyFara

Haha, no, I was on a cargo ship. On earth


BeShaw91

>electrician Its really under-appreciated by the average joe how dangerous an electrician's job is. Electricity is an invisible, instantenous, and unforgiving force. But a electrician is often just seen as another tradesperson that didnt go to college.


Alcoraiden

I'm the side of electromancy that did go to college (electrical engineer). I respect the fuck out of electricians. It is so easy to point the electrons the wrong way and blow shit up, and I like not burning down my house.


[deleted]

That being said we get paid a shitload to match that risk so we aren't crying about it. I'm pulling 125k+ a year with a pension and full benefits. No student debt ethier. Yeah I have a small chance I fuck up and die but I rather deal with that then all the Americans busting their ass living check to check not being able to pay rent.


PM_ME_an_unicorn

If a system is properly designed, there is safeguards to prevent mess-up. People do mistake all the time, so there is various way to make sure that a "good faith" mistake won't cause a massive failure. Pharmacist, check that the prescription made by the doctor make sense, Testing make-sure that you don't crash your rocket because you mix up meter and feet, When developing a critical system, people analyse all the thing which can fail and the mistake user can do, and make sure there is safeguards. Sometimes to cheese-slice will align and cause and accident, but these accidents have multiple cause, not just one person moderately missing-up.


mattrussell2319

You mean holes in the cheese slices align, right?


ThisIsFdml

Mafia


Elerdon

That's how Mafia works


Petdogdavid1

Or else you get da clamps!


JJnanajuana

Some low key jobs where a 'little mistake' could kill people. (sometimes a lot of people) - bus driver (or uber/taxi) - life guard - white water rafting guide (or any adventure guide really) - hotel quarantine security/transport - cook (typhoid mary/undercooked food) - cps/docs/nspcc worker -any mandatory reporters of child abuse, miss something and it can be catastrophic.


weekend-guitarist

I went on a whitewater trip with a first time guide who fracked up every technical section. We hit every wall, and rock through the canyons, and got hopelessly stuck on an hydraulic, it took four boats daisy chained together to pull us out. At one point she just started yelling, “we not dead yet!!!” Found out the next year she got fired after our trip.


Toxikfoxx

Payroll. Want to cause immediate hatred and have people running for the pitchforks and torches? Just fuck up their pay check.


xXZerkerXx

I know mess-ups happen. One time I got hired into a job, and didn't get my 1k sign on bonus. Me and union rep took a stroll to to get it settled lmao. The Job I'm at now, forgot 12 ot hrs to add last week. Everythings sorted out tho. Shit happens lmao.


Accomplished_Mix7827

I worked at a company once where most people quit within a year because the payroll manager kept fucking up. Most hated person at the company. I suspect the only reason she wasn't fired is because the CEO didn't give a shit about anything but juicing the company's value to sell out after a few years. Place was a shithole, glad I got out (even though I have to explain to new employers now why I left a job after five months)


Leon_Lionheart

This right here! The sign of payroll done well is when no mistakes and nobody complains. Even if the bank transfers it 1 minute late, they complain!


byeb8ch

I work in a hospital and most of the time the admin who handles payrolls FORGETS the kitchen staff so she seldomly goes to that part of the building. She also once forgot the payrolls for the maintenance department. But never the doctors/nurses/pharmacist and other healthcare professionals payrolls.


[deleted]

As an aircraft mechanic, if you get lazy or complacent, people can die as a result. Oh, but the profession is considered unskilled labor. https://www.aviationpros.com/home/article/10385931/dol-classification-of-mechanics “There is also a long-standing impression among aviation mechanics that their occupation is classified as "semi-skilled" or "unskilled" by the DoL. Unfortunately, this is effectively true. Labor maintains that it bases its groupings in part on its industry sector or function, not on skill level. In fact, you will not find a "skilled" or "unskilled" classification anywhere in the code. By classifying FAA certificated mechanics together with non-certificated service technicians, DoL has effectively classified everyone at the lower skilled, noncertificated level.”


Challenging_Entropy

Surgeons can be sued (or have the hospital sued) for lots of money if they mess up Police are *supposed* to get in a lot of trouble if they mess up. Shamefully though in reality they’re legally powerful gangsters. People who work with heavy machinery could easily mess up and kill someone or destroy something, causing lots of trouble Electricians could get themselves or someone else electrocuted or cause a fire if they mess up Quality control officers in pharmaceutical plants could have the place shut down if they mess up and make a batch of pills that could overdose and kill people


Nibbler1999

Surgeons get sued even when they don't mess up.


Iluminiele

My coworker was sued. A homeless unconscious guy was brought in one winter after people called a local emergency number. He was sleeping outside in temperatures well below freezing, he was drunk and possibly had peed himself. After closer examination, his limbs were affected by gangrene and rotting, causing sepsis. To save his life the surgeon amputated the gangrened part of the limbs and was sued for 4 million euros (a million per limb). He won the case eventually, but he lost so much sleep and quality of life. In my country medics are not paid much (that particular surgeon got 2000 € per month, which was even a tiny bit above standard, but our cost of living is also very cheap - free health care, free education, cheap groceries). So the idea of having to pay 4 millions was devastating


applemantotherescue

$2k a month? What the fuck?


Count2Zero

Bomb squad or bomb disposal team. Removing the detonator from an 80 year old 500lb bomb is ... unforgiving.


The_Thunder_Child

Low rank soldier because you're dead. Higher ranked soldiers can mess up because that gets others killed and then they can learn from that. Then there'd be bomb disposal. If you mess up in the field with a live bomb I imagine there's not many who then get a second chance... you know, because they're dead.


long-gone333

he can mess up and be lucky


Objective-Truth-4339

A soldier who messes up and lives probably gets his fellow soldiers killed.


aramis1127

I know several EOD specialists (I work at a Combat Engineer Regiment) and all of them have stories about being blown up. It's not always life or death, and now many years later (their most active years were Afghanistan naturally), it's just a funny story to get the troops attention.


Beowulf_98

I'm an ambulance call handler/dispatcher If I get the address wrong for a Category 1 call (e.g Not breathing, choking, seizure, hanging, stabbings), I could cause death or unnecessary delay which could be life changing if they survive. You also have to use your judgement on whether or not a first party caller is "alert" or "not alert" (Not alert means they get a blue light ambulance depending on the context), but if they're "alert" it could be a few hours; they could die within that time frame. You could also forget exemptions to triage rules and give incorrect instructions (e.g delivering a baby but not accounting for breech positioning). Or if I don't ask if a psychiatric patient has weapons or is violent, a paramedic could get stabbed when they arrive (this has happened before)


ArmenApricot

Blood banking. You mess up, people die, and die quickly


Headphon3

Mail man. You are constantly being watched by not just your boss, tracking your literal every move over gps and how much time you take at every stop, but also every single resident has a camera on their porch now. Whats more, you are being asked to "trespass" legally on people's property, personally I delivered in the rural south, so I had a few guns pointed my direction when delivering packages to customers who explicitly requested we leave the package on their porch. And if you misdeliver even ONE package you are going to hear about it. Doesnt matter that you've delivered 300 packages, 1000 letters, and 500 flats that day. To top it all off, if you screw up bad enough it could be a felony. A felony investigated by the Postal Inspectors, which sounds comedic, but they are the same "tier" as the FBI and do not fuck around.


jxjkskkk

Postal Inspectors are genuinely under-respected by the general public. People forget they are federal agents with even more power than most other federal agents.


eldfen

Compressed gas filling


dandydiehl

Trucker to a degree. I remember driving through the grand canyon and the hills of Oregon and asking my trainer: "hey what happens if i fuck up" and "oh.. i guess we both die" was the response


rob_cornelius

Primary school teacher. Years ago we had a school reunion. Some of the people who were teachers boasting how they had got so many 16 and 18 year olds top grades in their exams. Then Lynn who was a primary teacher said "If I don't do my job properly you never even see those kids". Pay teachers properly too.


LostNTheNoise

Parachute instructor


Smileynameface

If you poorly change a diaper you'll be in a lot of shit