Nexus - 1702 - New Times Magazine-pages

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Like "frying" a computer burns, but patterns formed by the electric current. Around 16 million lightning storms take place around Alternatively, if lightning passes straight through the the world every year. In America annually, the estimated body—striking the head, perhaps, and entering through number of people injured by lightning is between 200 and __ the mouth, eyes or nose—the bones, muscles and nerves, 1,000—four out of five of whom are men—while the — as Pamela Grim, MD, put it, "get nailed”. average number of people killed is sixty-seven. As these A lightning strike, which can deliver about 200 million statistics show, a person is much more likely to be injured —_ volts and 20,000 to 40,000 amperes of energy, is only a few by a lightning strike than to be killed by one. milliseconds in duration—an infinitesimally short period According to Dr Elisabeth Gourbiére of Electricité de of time. This powerful blast of energy can knock people France, Service des Etudes Médicales, only 20 per cent o off their feet and throw them into the air, leaving them those struck by lightning die immediately as a result. Of | with broken bones and dislocated limbs—either as a the remaining 80 per cent—the survivors—70 per cen result of a fall or because of severe muscle contraction sustain, in addition to electrical (electricity causes the muscles to burns, etc., permanent damage contract). f , Il i h ik ill cocina?) The "flashover" atin ee Usually when lightning strikes phenomenon has saved victim, unless revived using CPR, a person, most of the current, in . : : may die very quickly. The its desire to complete a circuit to many a lightning strike circuitry of the brain may also be he ground, “splashes” over the victim from instant death. affected, particularly the area surface of the body rather than that controls breathing. Because 1 passing straight through it. (The It's common for the this area of the brain can take a opmost layer of the skin, victim's skin to be burned... long time to recover following a especially when wet, is a fairly strike, it may be a while before good conductor of electricity.) the victim resumes normal The "flashover" phenomenon has breathing. saved many a lightning strike victim from instant death. The victim may also experience a loss of consciousness, t's common for the victim's skin to be burned as a result, | as happened to Sullivan on one occasion. Many lightning hough not as severely as one would assume. Also _ strike victims report how, following their injury, they burned in some cases are the victim's clothes, which, due blacked out for a moment, only to find themselves lying o the instantaneous conversion of sweat to steam, have —on the ground or in an ambulance or a hospital bed. been known to “explode” off the body. In addition, | Temporary paralysis, blindness and deafness are also mysterious fern-like markings, called "Lichtenberg figures". common, as is short-term memory loss. In some cases, or "lightning rash", may appear on the skin, remaining for _ too, the victim may go into a coma. ours or sometimes days. These are neither rashes nor Being struck by lightning is similar to having a stroke, resulting in extensive nerve cell damage. The area of the brain most affected is that which controls personality, emotion and organisation. These injuries leave little noticeable evidence of having occurred. Often, when anatomical medical tests—using MRI and CT scans as well as X-rays which show how the body looks, not how i functions—are conducted on the patient, the results tha’ come back are completely normal, falsely indicating tha’ the patient is fine. Mary Ann Cooper, MD, of the University of Illinois, who is one of the world's leading experts on the medica WE'VE GOT TO effects of lightning, explained: "With lightning-strike STOP oa victims, it's the same as if a computer has been fried by be lightning... On the outside, the computer looks absolutely fine. Inside it's the same thing. All the boards and switches are intact, but it's scrambled. It can't function. That's the same with people. They look fine inside and out. All our best diagnostic tests say they're absolutely fine, but inside they're completely different. One patien put it best when she told me that it's as if the office u: manager of her brain walked off the job and isn't coming Somer Ne back." THIS, many a lightning strike victim from instant death. WE'VE 60T TO STOP MEETING LIKE THIS, So er fle 54 * NEXUS The "flashover" phenomenon has saved It's common for the victim's skin to be burned... FEBRUARY - MARCH 2010 www.nexusmagazine.com