BRADENTON -- A Pennsylvania power company lineman who was shocked Wednesday afternoon in Englewood remains in the intensive care unit at Blake Medical Center.
Tracy Slaugenhaupt, 53, of West Penn Power was working to help restore electricity to Englewood after damage from Hurricane Irma. He was airlifted to Bradenton and underwent surgery on Wednesday.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family,” said Todd Meyers, a West Penn spokesman. “We made travel arrangements for his family as soon as possible.”
Slaugenhaupt has a wife and three grown children. He worked out of the West Penn office in Clarion, Pennsylvania.
On Wednesday, he was working in the 1600 block of 5th Street in Englewood when he was injured, according to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office.
“It appears that he came into contact with an energized power line,” Meyers said. “We are investigating that.”
West Penn Power has about 60 employees working along the Gulf Coast. The FirstEnergy Corp., which owns West Penn and several other power companies, has nearly 1,000 employees in the state.
“These guys were working in very hot, very difficult conditions for many hours a day,” Meyers said. “It’s upsetting and disappointing that something like this happened.”
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A West Penn Power employee from Jefferson County was in critical condition after being shocked while working on electric lines in Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, West Penn officials confirmed.
Tracy Slaugenhaupt, 53, of Summerville, underwent surgery on Wednesday at Blake Medical Hospital in Bradenton, Fla., according to an update his wife sent to friends.
For the past two weeks, Slaugenhaupt, a 25-year employee of West Penn Power in Pennsylvania, was working in the area to restore power to Florida Power and Light customers, according to the Englewood Sun.
“The electric went in through his right arm and across his chest. It exited through the left shoulder,” Darlene Slaugenhaupt wrote in her update to friends. “He has extensive full burns on his arms, chest, back, shoulders. He has lost a lot of muscle and tissue already. He is in critical condition. He has burns on 36 percent of his body.”
About 40 West Penn Power workers are in Florida in the Bradenton and Sarasota areas, helping with hurricane relief efforts, West Penn Power spokesman Todd Meyers said.
The incident happened in Englewood, about 30 miles south of Bradenton.
“It's been a tough, hard slog down there,” Meyers said. “And as much as we talk about safety, it's a reminder that working with electricity is a difficult, dangerous job.”
Darlene Slaugenhaupt wrote that immediate prayer is needed from everyone.
“We need prayers for him to stay alive, keep his limbs, and to be able to use his arms and hands again,” she wrote. “We think he will have more surgery on Friday and again on Sunday to remove the necrotic tissue and muscle. He's currently intubated, was intubated at the scene, but I'm not sure if they are keeping it in or not. Doctors are concerned about pneumonia. And obviously skin infections would be deadly.
“If he makes it, which we believe he will, it will be many, many operations and months of recovery,” she wrote. “I do not want to lose my best friend. I love Tracy with all my heart and am praying for God to do a miracle and save him, save his limbs, and let him be able to use his arms and hands.”