Symptoms and Common Injuries
Victims of lightning strikes often experience mysterious symptoms that
doctors are unable to pinpoint. These symptoms often are not life-threatening,
but they may be chronic and usually do not go away with time.
Symptoms Sometimes Experienced:
- Muscle Pains- may be cramp-like, sometimes intense
- Tingling Sensations
- Loss or Alteration of Senses- eyesight and/or hearing problems,loss of touch, inability to feel heat, cold, pressure, and/or pain, or sensations of pain (sometimes severe) with no source
- Dizziness
- Disorientation
- Nausea and/or Vomiting
- Headaches
- Siezures
- Mental Depression- common among survivors, depression may set in as a result of: The bothersome symptoms that no doctor can seem to explain, and the reality that the symptoms may last a lifetime; the feeling of isolation, as lightning strikes are relatively rare and survivors have little or no faculties for sharing their experience.
Common Injuries Caused by Lightning
Some victims of lightning strikes thankfully escape without any severe or permanent injury. However, injuries recieved due to a lightning strike can be serious or life-threatening.
- Cardiac and/or Repiratory Arrest- The leading cause of death for strike victims. However, most victims that have gone into cardiac arrest can be easily revived with the immediate and proper administration of Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (C.P.R.). Many lightning-caused deaths could have been avoided if C.P.R. had been immediately administered to the victims.
- Central Nervous System (C.N.S.) damage
- Burns
- Deafness or hearing loss
- Blindness or loss of eyesight
- Muscle and/or Ligament tearing, Bone Fractures- caused by violent muscle contractions due to the electric current from a lightning strike
Internet Resources
The following sites contain valuable information for lightning strike and electric shock victims:
This web site is made possible by support from CIS Internet.
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