Hey SD,
Now that really sounds like a significant learning lesson. You see, you were spared.....for a reason. Maybe a message to really THINK prior to engaging in anything that has the possibility to cause a physical injury. I know, at times, people think that those of us who practice safety in a serious manner only work in a surgical environment and have no concerns about getting injured. In reality, it only takes a minute or less to just simply look at all the procedures one must undertake to complete a job and the parameters of the work area and project. Accidents don't just happen..they are created. There is always a factor somewhere that creates  an accident. In my 40+ years in the work environment, I have personally witnessed over 60 work-related accidents that caused serious physical damage. Some not pretty at all. And I'll challenge anyone who says differently.

Hey 'bro, glad you're still here to keep us company. In addition, your "little one" needs his pappy....play it SAFE for him.......Denny

I have done some extensive work in the wet inviroment and as a diver , when welding annoids to a ship you some times need a helper. If when the stinger goes hot and your rod touchs the annoid your helper is holding for you, it staightens him right-out. The proplem here thought is it's hard to find a helper that can hang on to the annoid long enough for you to get a tack. So always best to strike the ship first.

Narrow escape!!  Sorry this happened to you!
I always wondered, since we all predominately get paid by the hour for services preformed, why don't all of us use our safety gear every time as we get paid to put on and also get paid to take it off/ put it away.  I'm sure we all could use some additional billable time.  Calculated out one year how much I made in putting on and taking off my harness (rig) several times a day in one year.  I was surprised how much more money I made using it.
Many years wearing these things has led me to the Dennington harness.  This thing is AWESOME in how it works, how it fits, and how comfortable it is to wear even with two bolt bags (large variety), two spud wrenches, a sleever bar of thirty inch variety, tape measure holder, bull pin, speedbolts, shackle, two six foot chokers,  an eight pound beater and a rod sleeve with six pounds of 7018.  End of the day, no sore spots, no raw shoulders or neck and the way the load is carried on your body is really well balanced.  Cheap? NO!!  Good? Oh Yeh!!!  Wear one for a week and you' ll never go back.  Best part is the lanyards are at the OSHA length out of the box and if you fall, you are arrested from fall in a vertical position not splayed out like some dumb bird ,banging your head on everything around as you swing.  Have had occasion to use it twice now as it was intended due to that nasty ice on those little wormy narrow beams they use around here.  The rebar below did not get any of my blood on it. Check em (DENNINGTON HARNESS) out on the internet.  I'm sure you will be happy with it as compared to the crap they sell in safety catalogs.
Be careful out here!!  PS Hope you don't have to carry all this crap that I do around when working in other than inspection work. Oh the guy who developed them is an union ironworker.  I'm sure that Superman pose would have looked a little humorous to a causal onlooker........!!

Somewhere I read years ago about OSHA compiled statistics of falls from elevations of less than twenty feet.  Ironically the fatality rate as shown was much higher at shorter heights owing to the top heaviness of the human male and landing on your head.  The occurrence of paralysis from these falls was staggering.  Wheelchair bound as a"QUAD"; using my tongue to guide a switch  so I could move the chair around as I wait for someone to change my diaper While I slowly rot from infection from the ever increasing sores growing on my body caused by sitting in the chair too long.  Disgusting isn't it?  Not the way I want to finish this life for sure.  Drove an Alcohol dragster for a guy for a while who is paraplegic.  This guy had an unbelieveable talent for making money.  Millions and Millions of dollars.  Nice Guy too!!  Fun to hang with for sure!  Says to me still to this day, that he would give all his money, homes, trucks, racecars up in an instant just to be able to walk again.  I think about him everyday when I put my harness on for the first time that morning.
Now just how profitable to put on that harness???  At seventy-five dollars per hour labor rate and three minutes to put it on with an additional two minutes to take off and put it away just once a day; I just made another $6.25.  Now multiply that times an average of 175 working days a year that I need it and that comes to $1093.75.  More money to me for just being smart enough to use it (wink wink!)!  I think the OSHA guys just did me a favor by requiring that I wear one.  Mexico vacation here I come....... 

I had a shocking experience,but not in the electrical sense. I also weld on and for drilling rigs as Sourdough does. In my situation at this time I was attempting to cut off the wellhead and then cap the well[this was an old producer that was supposed to be properly plugged].I was told it was cemented to surface and there was no gas to worry about, so cut away,I was told by the service rig operator.As I blew a hole in the surface casing,[to start my cut in removing the wellhead]extreme pressure blew out the hole,so strong it was nearly blowing out my torch. In about 2 seconds I smelled natural gas,quickly I shut off my acetylene.A very close call,too close.The only thing I could think of that kept the gas from igniting was the extreme pressure nearly blowing out my cutting torch. Other than this everyone on location was very shocked and suprised there was no explosion.And to make matters worse this was down about seven feet in a cellar,no chance to escape if the worst happened.The rig operator was quite shaken up by giving me the OK to go to it.He said he bled off the gas. He likely did,but the gas built up pressure again over time,because after I concluded my cut I seen the well was not cemented to surface as it was sipposed to have been.In all my years in oilfield welding this was the closest I came to being a cinder.I usually double check everything on a job but this time,and I do not why I did not. It always pays to double check,not that we do not trust others,but because of the unforeseen. The rig operator said I must have had an angel looking over my shoulder.I think he was correct!