A St. Petersburg tree trimmer is lucky to be alive after he was shocked by 7,200 volts of electricity.

  • Tree trimmer Bradley Cater shocked while working last month
  • He's almost blind in one eye and unable to feel some of his fingers and left leg
  • Says wife and 6-month-old daughter kept him fighting  

In June, Bradley Cater was working at a home on 25th Avenue North when his pole hit a power line.

“It just hits you out of nowhere,” Cater said. “It doesn’t even feel like you’re getting shocked. It’s more like lava going through your insides.”

Cater said he was knocked unconscious and when he woke up he was still being shocked. He couldn’t move his arms or legs so he used his mouth to get down to safety.

“I crawled on the scissor lift and put my hand on the pedal and bit down on the toggle switches and eventually saved myself,” Cater said.

Firefighters were waiting below and Cater was airlifted to Tamp General Hospital.

Cater’s wife, Natasha, said she was out shopping for her husband’s first Father’s Day gift when she got the call.

"I have always been worried about that call,” Natasha Wood said. “He always told me if he ever hit that wire, I mean they call it a widow maker, it’s not something you normally come home from."

Cater spent a month in the hospital. He has had multiple surgeries and the shock has left him almost blind in one eye and unable to feel some of his fingers and his left leg.

Doctors say it’s a miracle he survived, but Cater said his wife and six-month-old daughter McKenzie kept him fighting.

"You think to God why me? Why save me? You get emotional and you start thinking He put me back here so I could watch my daughter grow,” Cater said.

Cater said he has emptied his savings to pay his medical bills and has more surgeries ahead of him. He is his family’s sole provider and won’t be able to work again for at least another nine months.

A gofundme account has been set up to help with expenses.  

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