What happens when a body is struck by lightning – IOTW Report

What happens when a body is struck by lightning

Thursday, 29 June 2017, 17:45 MJA Uncategorized 27

AccuWeather:

Being struck by lightning can have a profound effect on the body but in other ways than you might think.

“Lots of things happen to the body [when struck by lightning]. It really depends how you’re struck,” said Dr. David Claypool, a staff physician at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

“What happens really depends on how much force you take, whether directly or indirectly,” he said.

A direct lightning strike is when the bolt of lightning comes down from the sky directly into a person’s body. An indirect strike occurs when the person catches the shock from a secondary source, like when standing under a tree or a pavilion.

The effects on the body can vary. Eyesight or hearing may be adversely affected, Claypool said, due to the loud clap of the thunder and the bright flash from the lightning. A person could be temporarily blinded or rupture an eardrum.

Additionally, the heart could go into cardiac arrest. If a person is unresponsive after being struck, it’s urgent they get CPR immediately.

Often, the lightning can cause respiratory arrest, and the impacted person can have an oxygen-related injury from not breathing.  more here

27 Comments on What happens when a body is struck by lightning

  4. If there are no cars or houses to get in and you can’t go under a pavilion or tree, implies it’s safest to stand in an open field, or maybe lay down? What would you do if stuck in nature with a thunderstorm?

    I used to caddie on a well plumbed golf course. I’d drop the bags in the fairway and head to the rough under trees. Apparently that is wrong. And usually got stiffed on the tip.

  10. Our little acre has been struck 6 times in 49 years. Once, while holding a spoon out to drop into the sink (direct line to the tree that was struck), I felt the shock go right up my right arm. Scary stuff.

    Lightening once forked and struck on tow of the sides of DH’s golf party of 4 on the green. Scary stuff.

  19. Don’t take a shower or use the sink. People have died from in-rush current through electrical lines that find water lines as a path to ground via the water heater.

  21. If your car is struck by lightening don’t get out. It could have a residual charge that may electrocute you as you step to the ground. Don’t let anyone touch the car. Call 911 to get someone qualified to help.

  25. I got a moderate shock from my ham radio
    antenna.I was trying to disconnect it from
    the radio when I saw lightning flash about
    a mile away.The voltage was induced onto my
    antenna array thru the magnetic wave generated
    by the lightning.20 minutes later my wife passed
    after a 2 year battle with stage 4 melanoma and then a huge double rainbow appeared in the sky.Her suffering was over and she was with GOD.

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