Shocking Discovery

This story was first reported in Popular Science Magazine in 1986. It tells about a farmer out in the midwest plowing his field when he was suddenly stung by a common honey bee. The only trouble was that he happened to be alergic to bees. The sting caused quite a panic in the man as the sting was in his neck. Out of haste the man jumped down from his tractor, pulled a live spark plug wire from the running engine, and shocked the venomous sting directly on his neck. To his amazment the man although somewhat skaken, did not suffer an alergic reaction. By word of mouth the story spread to some doctors who were working in South America. In this harsh jungle environment in was very common for natives and others to be bitten by snakes so venomous that many would lose there lifes. These doctors started expermenting with the application of high voltage DC shocks directly to these snake bites with amazing results. Now it is very important to point out several issues here in the facts that first, these are high voltage DC shocks and not AC voltage as to what we commonly use in our homes. AC voltage can kill very easily and is not to be confused with DC voltage which these doctors used very successfuly from sources such as a car, motorcycle, boat, or even a lawn mower engine. What they did was to remove a spark plug wire off a running engine, put a lenth of insulated wire into the live spark plug wire and go directly to the bite. The way they reduced risk to the heart and brain was to take another length of insulated wire and find a ground near the engine, bolt it down, and run this second wire right next to the bite. By doing this the voltage will stay between these two points and not possibly injure or stop one's heart. Spider and scorpion stings would get a couple of jolts, and more poisionous snake bites would get several zap's. What they noticed was that in addittion to this high voltage zap, it would destroy the protiens of the venom, and also kill the pain.

As crazy as this might sound we soon tried this several times our selves on any thing from brown recluse, scorpion, and other venomous insect bites over the years with the same results. At the time of this article that was published in Popular Science I was working in a copper mine in central Arizona where several species of rattle snakes and many other venomous insects are very common. This article was so well recieved by the mine safety department that it was posted around the different mine departments.

So, doe's it really work? We sure found that it did, but you had better make sure if you ever try this to follow only a DC voltage application with a proper ground wire, and always seek professional medical attention.