"I took over the heart massage and another girl handled the oxygen. I shocked him again and this time I could feel the pulse in his chest -- I was just hoping it was a good pulse."Then he came back around and said: 'what's going on?'

"It was awesome. "He came right back to speaking from being, well, dead." Intensive care paramedic Lisa Staples said Tanker was conscious and talking by the time her team arrived at the scene.

"He is very lucky, that's for sure," Ms Staples said. "He was taken to Gold Coast Hospital in a stable condition."

The miracle survivor last night refused to talk about the ordeal. Firefighter Lawrence Johnston said the concrete boom did not connect with the high voltage lines.

"It never touched the power lines. It got within maybe a metre," he said. "Eleven thousand volts ... it arced across and the electricity travelled down the boom. "If there is moisture involved, it will arc across, especially big amounts of electricity."

Mr Johnston said the 11,000 volts were "huge" and Tanker was lucky to survive. "That is a huge shock -- by the time it gets into your house, it's 240 volts," he said.

"The lifeguard has saved his life. "The nurse pulling up, and the lifeguard stopping to help -- it's the Australian thing." Co-workers yesterday got on with the job at the beachfront site after Tanker was taken to hospital.

"He's lucky -- bloody lucky -- he had boots on," said one mate.

 Here the man's boots lay where he had been working on the concrete pump when he received the elect
Photographer: Michael Ross

Lifeguard Stuart Keay used a defibrillator to bring a construction worker back to life after 11,000 volts passed through him at a Mermaid Beach construction site on March 6, 2011.
Photographer: Michael Ross

A Gold Coast construction worker was brought back from the dead after 11,000 volts passed through him at a Mermaid Beach construction site on March 6, 2011.

A Gold Coast construction worker was brought back from the dead after 11,000 volts passed through him at a Mermaid Beach construction site on March 6, 2011.
Photographer: Michael Ross

Lifeguard Stuart Keay and intensive care paramedic Lisa Staples worked to revive a Gold Coast construction worker after 11,000 volts passed through him at a Mermaid Beach construction site on March 6, 2011.
Photographer: Michael Ross

A Gold Coast construction worker was brought back from the dead after 11,000 volts passed through him at a Mermaid Beach construction site on March 6, 2011. Here the man's boots lay where he had been working on the concrete pump when he received the elect.

Lifeguard Stuart Keay used a defibrillator to bring a construction worker back to life after 11,000 volts passed through him at a Mermaid Beach construction site on March 6, 2011