# Any lightning stories?



## mycrofft (May 28, 2009)

The afternoon lightning storms used to be a welcome break when I was a lifeguard on the San Bernardino mountains, but not quite as much when they marched down the little valley we were in and we were huddled in our cabana.

Any experiences good bad of funny with this?


----------



## rescuepoppy (May 28, 2009)

How about the pucker factor of hanging off the side of a mountain watching a storm move toward you?


----------



## medicdan (May 28, 2009)

I had a patron struck by lightning last summer at a classical music venue I work at. Fortunately,a LEO/EMT and I were close by. We found his pulseless, apnic and facedown in the mud. He had been holding an umbrella, and with his children standing on either side, under the umbrella. Lightning branched off and hit a tree and the umbrella itself at the same time, so we couldnt tell if a branch hat hit his head...?

We flipped him over, and began 2-person CPR. After about 1.5 minutes, we got a pulse back spontaneously, and the pt started breathing after another 30 seconds. By that time, we had a board, and loaded the patient into the ambulance. 

En Route to the hospital, pt was semi-conscious, vomiting, and recovered with little neuro deficits. I do believe he had an inner-ear injury from the sound of the lightning/thunder (I certainly thought I did!).


----------



## Mountain Res-Q (May 28, 2009)

Does touching a lightbar that wasn't properly grounded count? Cause then, ya... I have a shocking personal experience in that regard.  :excl:  LOL


----------



## VFFforpeople (May 29, 2009)

Everybody and cali will know the start of this story. Last summer 157 ground strikes to me area. Now we have the same pattern forming again right now..so we shall see how it all goes.


----------



## mycrofft (May 29, 2009)

*VFF I'm watching it this afternoon.*

Yeah, isolated convection columns. means dry lightning. Good luck.


----------



## cultex (Jun 2, 2009)

Lightning... no, thankfully.

As a former Electrician though I had my fare share of electrical experiences, nothing more than 277V though.  Feels like someone smacked you in the heart with a sledgehammer.  Then the taste of metal fills your mouth for the rest of the day if you have fillings.  Fun stuff.


----------



## PNWMedic (Jul 6, 2009)

no lightning struck pts yet luckily... hope I didn't just jinx myself <_<


----------



## usafmedic45 (Jul 7, 2009)

I saw a kid (17) get hit during a baseball game while in high school.  I also did some research on lightning fatality reporting in Florida a few years back (the first research I ever did).  It's amazing that something so powerful is so ineffective at killing people (70-90% of people struck survive- many with lasting injuries/disability) and the numbers struck may actually be higher than anyone suspected because some researchers believe many people never seek care after being struck.

For non-lightning electric injuries, I was inadvertently defibrillated when a resident during an ED code failed to call clear before delivering the shock.


----------



## Ridryder911 (Jul 7, 2009)

About 25 years or so, when I was still newer to big city EMS, I responded to one of the larger Country Club with confirmed two cardiac arrest (side by side) at the greens. Of course, I had plenty of so called help.. (ever seen a golf course without some physician being there?). Additional units and help arrived shortly but unusual to iniatiate and attempt to run two codes. 

Neither made it of it course. 

As a burn nurse had a gentleman that was a surveyor. He was holding the target pole and was struck by lightning and it was just a cloudy day. It left the traditional "fern" or "feather" like appearance on his stomach. Ironically, he was wearing one of those cowboy dinner plate size belt buckles and it took most of the strike. 

Life is too strange, you can't make this stuff up. 

R/r 911


----------



## usafmedic45 (Jul 7, 2009)

> It left the traditional "fern" or "feather" like appearance on his stomach.



Lichtenberg figures:






These are not always present, but rank as one of the most interesting findings one can see.  They are often strangely beautiful.


----------



## CAOX3 (Jul 7, 2009)

usafmedic45 said:


> They are often strangely beautiful.



Im sure......unless your the one who has been struck by lightning, then not so much. 

I dont think I have ever seen someone who has been struck by lighning, we get a few here and there that say they were.


----------



## mycrofft (Mar 29, 2010)

*Fractals*

See newer post about lightning.


----------



## foxfire (Mar 29, 2010)

usafmedic45 said:


> Lichtenberg figures:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Yeah, it is kinda beautiful in a way. kinda looks like a tattoo.


----------



## mycrofft (Apr 1, 2010)

*More on the Lichtenberg figures*





Wikipedia says the patterns on people lasts hours or days.
WHat if you coverd yourself in india ink and went out in a dry lightning storm with a CB antenna in your hand.....


----------



## firetender (Apr 1, 2010)

Beautiful, 20-something girls, jogging together on the beach.

Twins.

Rogue cloud, black as coal.

Lightning bolt strikes one of the girls.

Medics arrive. Attendant doing CPR.

Looks up to see girl at back of the ambulance with the face of the dead girl he's working on.

It took _him _a while to recover.

True story, I was working the receiving ER that day.


----------



## mycrofft (Apr 1, 2010)

*Oh, man! Psych max!*

How sad.

Sort of like that trick with old pahoehoe during an active lava flow. You move away from the runny red stuff, when ahead of you the ground explodes, sending hard old lava blocks flying, and flame and steam erupt...when you were convinced you were safe and the worst was behind you.:wacko:


----------

