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You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > So my brother-in-law was struck by lightning...

So my brother-in-law was struck by lightning...
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Jawbone54
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Aug 5, 2009, 02:03 AM
 
You can look at the video covering it here: 26-year-old Struck by Lightning

It happened a week ago. My wife and I are currently in Florida with him as he recovers a bit. He's in his home with pneumonia that resulted from the events immediately following the incident. He is deaf in his left ear (and that may return), but otherwise has nothing wrong with him long-term.

Have any of you been struck by lightning before? A relative? A friend? If so, what was the result?
     
olePigeon
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Aug 5, 2009, 03:27 AM
 
My stepmom was. She was running out to her car in a mall parking lot when a lamp post was struck by lightening about 50 feet from her. Her and another person were hit and taken to the hospital. Her hearing was permanently damaged in her left ear.

Personally, I'd rather win the lottery.
"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F. Roberts
     
ghporter
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Aug 5, 2009, 08:05 AM
 
It's amazing how variable "being struck by lightning" can be. A person could be burned or not. They could have major neurological damage or not. Deafness is often a side effect, but sometimes it's due to the sound waves caused by the lightning bolt (right THERE!), sometimes it's neurological, and sometimes it's something else.

While a lot of physicians will say that if they don't see "major issues" in the immediate post-strike period, the person will "have no long-term problems" because of it, there is a growing amount of research, much based on traumatic brain injury studies of Soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, that says otherwise. Your brother-in-law may suffer from memory impairment, from loss of judgment, even personality changes. These could be subtle, too. Make sure that everyone around him knows that, in spite of "being totally OK," he needs support and some "watchful waiting" to make sure that he really IS OK.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
Railroader
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Aug 5, 2009, 07:13 PM
 
Glad your brother-in-law is doing much better Jawbone.

Yesterday we had some wicked storms producing tons of lightning. The rain coming down was fierce. Alas, I need to go out and buy a bike-trainer for my bike so my daughter could ride tandem with me during a bike-a-thon we have this Saturday. I grabbed an umbrella for me, my daughter, and my son to share, and my daughter kept saying we shouldn't use the umbrella because it would cause us to get hit by the lightning. On one quick dash into a bike store a lightning bolt struck very closely and a girl standing in the door waiting to run out said "WOW! I felt all tingly from that one, I think some of the electricity wnet through me".

My 6 year old daughter gave me one of those looks. This triggered a memory of what your brother went through.

Needless to say I didn't use the umbrella the rest of the storm and got drenched.

Again, I am thankful your brother-in-law is doing better.
     
imitchellg5
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Aug 5, 2009, 10:19 PM
 
Glad to hear he is okay. I've not been directly struck, but was in a C-141 when I was five which got struck. It's the loudest sound I've ever heard. Don't care to repeat that again.
     
wallinbl
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Aug 5, 2009, 11:05 PM
 
A guy I went to high school with was struck while on a railroad track bridge. Never saw it myself, but rumor was that some of his teeth were melted together.
     
ghporter
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Aug 6, 2009, 08:02 AM
 
Originally Posted by wallinbl View Post
A guy I went to high school with was struck while on a railroad track bridge. Never saw it myself, but rumor was that some of his teeth were melted together.
Maybe his fillings were melted, but teeth don't melt. They burn.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
Jawbone54  (op)
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Aug 8, 2009, 09:37 PM
 
I finally returned to check the thread tonight.

My brother-in-law is about 50% where he needs to be with his lungs and improving steadily, but it looks like the hearing loss in his left ear might turn out to be permanent. Only time will tell.

Another woman was hit in Pensacola a week later through a window, apparently. It was in the news. All of her teeth were knocked out and her rings were melted into her hand. My bro-in-law got lucky, apparently.

Thanks for the stories and info, guys.
     
   
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