Surviving Outdoors: The Shocking Facts About Lightning Injuries
The ARS Sojourner
I quickly set up my little CW transceiver and erected a metal antenna mast near a stone cairn on the mountain peak. The view was breathtaking. It was a sunny day, but as I operated the sky grew dark and I felt the rumble of thunder. I looked up to see a tall, black cloud forming over a 12,000 foot peak a few miles away.
My heart jumped. I knew of a severely neurologically injured lightning victim who had his shoes and clothing blown off and his metal belt buckle melted into his flesh. What would happen to me if I were struck by lightning?
Should I get off the mountain peak where I would be in moist snow, or stay on top of the dry ridge? Would it be wiser to run for shelter in the trees or avoid moving about?
I resolved to search the medical literature and learn about lightning injuries!
WHAT IS LIGHTNING?
The usual explanation of lightning is quite simple: water vapor in the sky becomes charged as it is buffeted by the wind. The charged particles collect in layers as warm vapor rises, cools, condenses and falls. Lightning is movement of ions which neutralizes the layered charges.
Actually, lightning is very complex. Its study is a special branch of physics and meteorology.
Although lightning exhibits some properties of electricity, it does not behave like the generated currents we understand in radio circuits.
Lightning is sometimes called "an explosive avalanche of ions."
Lightning bolts are neither AC or DC, and are not easily defined as positive or negative. They can move in any direction and behave in very unusual ways.
Bolts can travel horizontally near the earth for up to four miles from their source, seeming to strike from a clear blue sky.
Successive secondary strikes, downward strikes from a mountain top, return strikes from the ground to the sky, sheet, ribbon, bead and even glowing ball lightning have been described.
The massive, explosive release of energy by a lightning bolt resembles current flow in a battery the same way that a dynamite blast resembles a campfire!
THUNDER
When dynamite explodes, it produces noise and shock waves. Thunder is the "boom" of a lightning explosion.
Lightning can occur without rain, but it is always accompanied by thunder. Thunder is produced by the strike; it cannot precede it.
Nearby thunder cracks, distant thunder rumbles and cloud-to-ground strikes sound louder than lightning discharging in the sky. Heavy rain often begins to fall immediately after a loud clap of thunder.
Thunder can be heard up to 10 miles. You can estimate the distance from a strike in miles by timing the number of seconds between the flash and the rumble and dividing by five.
WHAT IS A LIGHTNING HIT?
A "hit" is the transfer of lightning energy to a person or object. This occurs in five basic ways: direct hit, contact injury, splash injury, step injury, and blunt force.
A DIRECT HIT is when the explosive force of lightning descends directly on a victim.
CONTACT injury occurs when lightning energy is transferred to a victim from something he is touching, such as a metal pole, a fence or a telephone.
SPLASH is by far the most common cause of injury. It occurs when energy "jumps" to a victim from a nearby object. Energy can splash from something made of metal, wood, or even from other people.
STEP injury can occur when lightning hits the ground near a victim. Energy spreads over the earth like ripples on a pond and passes through the body of a person walking, standing with his feet apart, or laying on the ground.
BLUNT FORCE injury is damage from the shock wave of a nearby lightning strike. It can cause serious harm even if no current is transferred.
About 70 percent of reported lightning injuries have involved a single victim, but large groups of people have been killed or injured by a single strike. Long rows of cattle or sheep standing near a fence have been found dead of lightning strike.
TYPES OF INJURIES CAUSED BY LIGHTNING
Each lightning injury is unique and unpredictable. Although about 30 percent of lightning strikes reported in the medical literature are fatal, most injuries are not reported and many are trivial.
Researchers suspect that the true death rate among lightning victims may be as low as 3 percent.
Injuries producing exit and entrance wounds like those seen in power line accidents are rare in lightning victims. Lightning injuries more often resemble explosion injuries.
Clothing and shoes are usually blasted from the victim's body. Most victims have ruptured eardrums. Skull fractures and other broken bones are common. Fingers or toes may be blown off and tissues split open as if hit by a hammer.
More than half of lightning victims suffer eye injuries of various kinds, including rupture of the globe, internal bleeding and cataract formation.
Despite what you see in cartoons, lightning is not "fire from heaven" that burns victims to a crisp. Burns caused by lightning itself are usually superficial, and may leave fern-like patterns on the skin. These were once thought to be "photographs" of the surroundings caused by the flash!
Severe secondary burns are caused by metal objects on the body that have been heated by lightning. Belt buckles or other items may be bent or fused by lightning.
Secondary injuries from falls, or from falling objects can occur.
Nervous system injuries are common. Almost all victims have anterograde memory problems, making it difficult for them to process new information for days or weeks after the strike.
Psychiatric disturbance such as phobia and post traumatic stress usually accompanies a significant lightning injury.
When death occurs, it is almost always due to cardiopulmonary arrest.
FIRST AID FOR LIGHTNING VICTIMS
In most disaster situations, emergency workers are told to ignore the dead and help the living. Not so with lighting injury!
At the scene of a lightning disaster, rescuers must ignore the usual rules of triage. In modern times, death from lightning is unusual if a victim is breathing at the scene, so the rule becomes "treat the dead and let the injured lie!"
Ben Franklin, who made amazing and important early contributions to the study of lightning, once resuscitated a chicken struck by lightning using mouth-to-beak respiration!
Remember that a lightning victim may have eye injuries that dilate the pupils and makes him appear dead when he is not.
It is a myth that lightning victims "hold a charge" and should not be touched. Rescuers must start work on the victim immediately!
Lightning does NOT cause "suspended animation" that allows delay in resuscitation efforts as was once reported.
HOW DO I AVOID TROUBLE?
Here are some pearls that may help you protect yourself against injury from lightning:
+ The most dangerous time for lightning is just BEFORE a storm.
+ Lightning occurs more often over mountains, marshes and river basins.
+ You are more likely to be hit if you are near tall or isolated objects, or on a hilltop. Don't allow yourself to be the tallest object in the area.
+ Choose to wait out the storm in a low area where there is thick, uniform undergrowth with no prominent trees (and no water!)
+ It may help to lower your height by crouching. Put your feet together to reduce injury by step effect. Don't lay down on the ground.
+ If you are in a group, spread out to avoid multiple injuries.
+ If you are in the water or in a boat, get to shore immediately.
+ Don't carry something that is tall or made of metal such as an antenna mast, and don't stand near such objects.
+ A small hut or a tent in the wilds can offer little protection because of splash effect, especially if it's the tallest object in the area.
+ An enclosed vehicle might offer some protection by diffusing current flow around you. A convertible or a canvas topped vehicle isn't safe. Rubber tires add nothing to your protection.
+ The safest place from lightning is in the middle of a large, sturdy building, away from the chimney and open windows or doors.
+ It's foolish to use a device such as a telephone or a transceiver that is connected to outside wiring when there is lightning danger.
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Dr. Bob Armstrong, N7XJ, an expert QRPer, builder and outdoorsman, is a physician living and practicing in Mati, UT. In addition to his family medicine and obstetric practice, he works in an emergency room and teaches at a training program for young doctors in Provo, Utah.