I nearly killed myself when I was 19, all by myself in my damp basement flat. Method of death could have been electrocution, starvation or burning (but really all by being stupid) - you choose. I had a '70's amp I'd been given that had some weird fault - one channel would go off after a while (thermal fault on a 741, I found). Anyway, this thing had a a wooden case, earthed metal chassis. I had to keep flipping it over to probe around, looking for the fault. Because of the exposed live terminals I was turning it off at the switch every time I flipped it, however the switch was in an awkward place to reach, and it quickly became a real PITA. So I thought I would just handle it really carefully, and flip it over without turning off the mains.
One tiny moment of inattentiveness - my thumb was near the amp's live mains connection, next moment it was on that connection, and of course I was holding the earthed chassis with both hands. Most of the current thankfully went through that same hand, but enough went up my arm and down my other arm to paralyse my arms and hands and part of my body. Unable to move, no-one to call out to, my thumb smoking where the live terminal was burning into it (the palms of my hands I discovered afterwards had also been starting to burn)...
Tune in next week for the next thrilling installment!
Yeah ok I won't do that.
I had to go to a Very Calm Place inside to work out which muscles I could actually use - ok the ones between my shoulder blades seemed to work. Pulled on those, the amp dropped out of my hands. Phew! Needless to say, I've always been very careful of live circuits since then.