Cordice Ward rescued Breck L. Wallace from electric shock, Clinchmore, Tennessee, December 5, 1962. Breck, 6, was running through heavy rain with his head lowered when he came in contact with a broken power line carrying 2,300 volts of electricity. The uninsulated wire, which was two feet above the ground as it lay across a hedge and an automobile, knocked Breck unconscious, and he fell forward onto the earthen driveway of the Ward dwelling with his legs across the sagging power line, forcing it to within six inches of the ground. Ward’s wife witnessed the accident and awakened her husband, who saw Breck lying across the sputtering wire with smoke curling from his body. Ward, 35, coal miner, wearing only underwear, a bathrobe, and rubber-soled shoes, ran through the rain to near Breck. Ignoring warnings of two other men who had arrived, Ward wrapped his hands in dry rags he had brought with him and grasped Breck’s legs. He received an electric shock and quickly withdrew his hands. He then noticed the rubber soles on Breck’s shoes as the power line held his feet above the wet ground. Although the men again warned him, Ward placed one finger on the tip of each shoe and flipped Breck’s legs from the wire. He then jumped over the line, which had snapped back to two feet above the ground, and carried Breck to the nearest building. Another man administered artificial respiration and soon revived Breck, who was hospitalized for severe burns but recovered.
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