Kids get into all sorts of stuff and I have seen them be electrocuted accidentally more than a couple of times. However now I am a little bit alarmed because I have found out that even if your kid looks okay, he or she may have suffered a dangerous burn anyway.
Electrical burns occur as a result of an external electric shock, with common causes of such accidents including exposed electric wires, incorrectly earthed electrical components in the home or workplace, and so on. It is also possible to suffer electoral burns if you are struck by lightning as well, although this is a far less common way of being burned.
The specific problem associated with electrical burns is that the injuries suffered can often be extremely serious without this being readily apparent. When an individual suffers electrical burns, the point at which the current enters and exits the body may not be very obvious, whereas the internal injuries suffered may be entirely disproportionate to the apparent injuries on the skin.
This happens because certain parts of the human body – namely the nerves and muscles – are designed to deal with and utilize the electrical charge that your body naturally produces.
Consequently, these parts of the human torso are superbly effective for conducting electricity, meaning that any external electrical ‘jolt' is channeled to and through the muscle tissue and nerves very easily. As a result, an electrical shock can cause significant nerve and muscle tissue damage, which can in turn prompt the release of electricity from affected organs.
The fact that the nerves and muscles have been damaged allied to the fact that your internal ‘electrical system' is now running amok can lead to damage to many major organs of the body, causing cardiac arrhythmia or arrest, kidney or liver failure and so on.
Furthermore, because muscles may have been damaged and as a result of the malfunctioning electrical system (it is your internal electrics that control movement), many people who suffer electrical burns become far more uncoordinated and clumsy, with the resultant falls increasing the risk of fractures and broken bones.
The solution is, of course, is to keep wires and any other sources of shock way out of your children's reach. You would also do well to by those caps you put over electric outlets to protect your children from injury.