Posted on 07/07/2006 3:22:06 PM PDT by april15Bendovr
Lightning Strikes Teenager Listening To iPod British Doctors Issued Warning 2 Weeks Ago
POSTED: 5:10 pm MDT July 6, 2006 UPDATED: 11:06 am MDT July 7, 2006 CASTLE ROCK, Colo. -- A teenager who was hit by lightning over the weekend talked about his close brush with death Thursday.
Jason Bunch was mowing the lawn and listening to his iPod at his home in Castle Rock in the 3200 block of Cherry Plum Way on Sunday when he was struck.
He was taken to the hospital and was then put into the intensive care unit. Bunch recovered and was released from the hospital.
"I woke up and blood was coming out my ears," Bunch, a Douglas County High School senior, said.
Bunch has large scars on his feet and smaller burn marks on his hands.
"From where the iPod was, it damaged my hearing and it ruptured my eardrums. Where the cord was, it burned me all down my body," said Bunch. "We need to shave my head because my hair is like dreadlocks. It's all sticking together."
"I'm just extremely blessed to be alive," he said.
Warning Issued Recently
It was just two weeks ago that doctors in London warned of the dangers of listening to an iPod or using a cell phone during a thunderstorm.
The doctors said having such devices near your head when hit by lightning can result in even more severe injuries. The metallic devices and wires could act as a conductor, causing potentially lethal internal injuries, the doctors wrote in a letter to the British Medical Journal.
They cited the case of a teenage girl who was using a cell phone in a London park who was hit by lightning and received very severe injuries. The 15-year-old girl later became wheelchair-bound. She has cognitive, emotional and physical problems. She also had a badly perforated eardrum in her left ear.
When a person is struck by lightning, the high resistance of human skin usually results in lightning being conducted over the skin rather than through the body -- a process known as flashover.
But Dr. Swinda Esprit said in the letter that conductive materials in direct contact with skin such as metallic objects -- like a mobile phone or iPod -- disrupt the flashover and result in internal injury with a greater risk of dying.
There were other similar cases in Malaysia in 1999, South Korea in 2004 and China in 2005. The people died in all three cases. The authors said there were no previous reports in medical journals.
"All these events resulted in death after the people were struck by lightning while using their mobile phones outdoors during storms," they wrote.
Pathetic Disfunctional Foul-mouthed Poetic Diarrhea
Other known as RAP music
WOW- this is creepy
If the iPod survived in functioning condition, Apple would buy it back and then use it for sales promotions. The guy would be then set for life.
I would like to know why an I-Pod draws lighting but my huge house with a steel roof and my nieghbor massive barn with a metal roof is immune to lighting for the past 130 plus years.
I wonder if the doctors warned about mowing in a lightning storm?
So God doesn't like IPODS?
I was thinking God may not like Rap music.
So that's what it's like to be a Gangsta.
I think it was Denver where the guy on the motorcycle got struck dead by lightning during rush hour traffic a couple of weeks ago.
The warning does not mean, "do not wear an iPod during a thunderstorm because it will attract lightning".
Rather, the warning should be something more like "if you should happen to be unlucky enough to be struck by lightning, it would be better for you to not have been wearing an iPod, using a cellphone, or holding any other metallic object next to your body, because it may increase the severity of the damage that the lightning strike will do to your body".
The iPod does not draw lightning. This kid was going to be hit by the bolt...iPod or not.
What makes the iPod or cell phone relevant is that the metallic object in close proximity to the head gives the electricity a path of lesser resistance that it can follow into the body.
Skin is resistant but natural oils and salts on the body (which are conductive) can allow the effects of the bolt to pass to ground before damaging the body too much.
This is why we read stories of folks being struck but receiving little or no damage.
The cellphone/iPod/headphones being placed into the equation disrupts that dynamic.
Your house and the neighbors barn with metal roofs are very likely grounded at some point so the effect is much the same. Thank Ben Franklin for the fact that your house is still standing.
iPods (I hate spelling stuff like that, even when it's correct) don't repel lightning, nor can they be modified to do so. When lightning strikes you it hurts like heck. Nothing to be seen here. Move along.
Lemme get this straight. An IPod is bad, but grasping a metal lawn mower in the middle of a storm is deemed wise?
Yeah, that's how I would want to get my fifteen minutes of fame, NOT!!
Gee: I am wondering how lightning killed all those people before cell phones and IPODS.
When lightning hits you its just a matter of whether or not the good Lord wants you in heaven. he wasnt ready for this IPOD listener or the guy would be dead IPOD or no IPOD.
I'd make it a toss-up. Sure, the mower can kill you but it won't play Barbra Streisand...
Best course of action is to try not to get hit by lightning.
Maybe the kid is alive BECAUSE of the ipod. Did it channel the voltage away from his heart? I think this is a good question. Just like lighting hitting the ocean where people are swimming.
Here is one for all you smart-ass freepers out there.
How far does the current of lighting pass thru the salt water of the Atlantic Ocean? Or, how far away would you have to be to the site of the strike to not be fried?
How's about that guy from New Mexico that got struck like seven times and survived them all. God must have been on sabatical for that guy. I wouldn't call him lucky either.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.