A heartbreaking photograph has emerged of a tradie dad who lost both of his arms and almost his life in an horrific workplace accident.
New Zealander Jahden Nelson has a tough road to recovery with a recent photograph showing the father-of-three grimacing in pain following his double arm amputation.
Mr Nelson suffered a massive electric shock when a metal pole he was carrying at an Auckland scaffolding site touched long-hanging overhead power lines in April of last year.
The 28-year-old had such severe burns to his arms surgeons were forced to amputate both limbs with the voltage also causing him to have a near fatal heart attack.
A photograph of New Zealand scaffolder Jahden Nelson (pictured), 28, shows the tradie’s heartwrenching road to recovery after he had both arms amputated following a workplace accident
He also had to learn to walk again after the electric shock left him with nerve damage in his lower body.
Doctors told his mother he only had a 20 per cent chance of survival.
However, after six months of intensive treatment at New Zealand’s national burns centre at Auckland’s Middlemore Hospital he was transferred to Auckland City Hospital where he began learning how to walk again.
On Wednesday New Zealand’s WorkSafe agency announced it had laid charges over the incident.
According to local law the identity of the defendant has been suppressed but they face a maximum penalty of A$1.4 million if found guilty.
Mr Nelson (pictured with two of his children) lost both his arms as the result of a workplace accident last April in Auckland
Mr Nelson (seen holding his baby) also suffered a heart attack from the accident and doctors only gave him a 20 per cent chance of survival
Worksafe said the defendant had failed ‘to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers who work [for them], including Jahden Nelson’.
This ‘exposed workers to a risk of death or serious injury arising from the interaction between workers and overhead electric lines’, the agency said.
In a statement on Wednesday, Mr Nelson said he was pleased charges had been laid but could not comment further.
Mr Nelson was working for Supercity Scaffolding when the accident occurred.
Speaking to New Zealand news outlet Stuff last November, Mr Nelson said he couldn’t remember anything from the week leading up to the incident.
He said he hopes to see more results from the intensive rehab and physiotherapy.
‘My next goal is to keep regaining control of my body. Everything feels a lot different after the accident,’ he said.
‘It’s like my brain is telling me I can do things, while my body doesn’t want to.’
His mother Toni Paikea wrote in a fundraiser that after the accident doctors had given Jahden just a one-in-five chance of living.
‘He has beaten all odds due to love and support we have had from everyone, and we are all blessed to still have him here,’ she said.
Ms Paikea was asked to make the nightmarish decision to have her only son’s arms amputated.
Mr Nelson was working at a scaffolding site when a metal pole he was carrying touched low-hanging power lines delivering a massive electric shock
Mr Nelson spent months in hospital learning to walk and regain control of his body movements
‘I just wouldn’t wish this on anybody. It’s the hardest thing a parent could go through,’ she told the NZ Herald at the time.
‘It’s a life and death situation. I’m holding my son’s heart in my hands.
‘He is a young father to three beautiful children … a humble family man, dedicated, all-round guy, loved by many friends and family.’
Mr Nelson only learnt of his fate when he woke after the surgery.
‘I was kind of like, shocked that I had lost my arms,’ he told the Herald in July.
Nelson had his final operation in August and was only recently fully discharged from hospital.
‘I’ve still got a long way to go, but till then I’m ready to tackle the challenges that lie ahead,’ he wrote in a fundraiser in August.
‘I have set up this page to continue the fundraising efforts already made which I hope will contribute to a home for me and my family or opportunity to invest in advanced prosthetic technology.’
Despite the gruelling years of rehabilitation and recovery ahead, Mr Nelson says he is grateful to be alive and be with his children.
