iPod saves lightning-strike teen

[PlasmaBomb]

Link

A teenage girl who was struck by lightning may have been saved by her iPod, it emerged today.

Sophie Frost and boyfriend Mason Billington, both 14, were sheltering beneath a tree in a storm when the 300,000-volt bolt hit her iPod, knocking them out.

But since her headphones were hanging from her school uniform - and not in her ears - the wires diverted some of the current away from her body, avoiding vital organs.

The effect of the strike was also reduced because she was holding hands with Mason at the time, splitting the shock between them.

Sophie escaped with minor burns while Mason, who recovered first and heroically carried her to safety, received eye damage which doctors hope will not be permanent.

Sophie, from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, said yesterday: ?I?m doing OK. I?m doing well. I?ve had a few burns down my body but it?s all healing OK.

?My eyes have some minor wounds, some irritation, but they will heal in a couple of weeks.

'Everyone said the iPod must have diverted the lightning away from my body, which probably saved my life.'

She added: ?We both got knocked unconscious but my boyfriend got up first. He couldn?t see but he took me over his shoulder and carried me to the road.

Mason was able to flag down a female driver who took them both to hospital.

The woman was sent a thank-you card for her help.

Sophie?s relieved sister Amy Telfer, 20, from Basildon, said: ?I was shocked when I heard, but not as shocked as she was.

?She?s talking and laughing about it now.

?There were lots of things that kept her alive - they were wearing shoes and holding hands which helped.?

And Sophie?s mother, Julie, told The Sun: ?I just thank God my daughter is still alive.
Apple iPod

The iPod had been bought by Sophie's grandmother only a few days before the lightning strike

'The doctors say her iPod saved her.

?Mind you the only thing Sophie was worried about was that her new iPod was frazzled.?

The music player had been bought by her grandmother only a few days before Monday?s devastating lightning strike at playing fields in Rayleigh.

Dr Mary Ann Cooper, a lightning injury specialist, said that because the pair were holding hands the effect of the lightning would have been diluted.

?No one will ever know if one had 70 per cent and the other 30 per cent. It is too complicated,? she added.

A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service said: ?They are very lucky indeed. It is fortunate their injuries are not more serious.?

Sophie, who has been nicknamed Sparky by friends, is now recovering at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, while Mason is being treated in Southend.

Photos -

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[Danwar]

Darwin missed

i mean seriously how stupid do you have to be to hide under a tree during a storm?

also, while i may not know that much about the behaviour of a lightning bolt , im pretty sure that the ipod (which is made of metal) attracted the bolt to her in the first place after it hit the tree.

 

[Gibson486]

She can believe what she wants.....

 

[isekii]

I bet Apple gives her a new ipod

 

[Phoenix86]

I seriously doubt a thin wire used for ear buds/headsets redirected a significant amount of current to affect anything, am I off base here?

 

[MotF Bane]

Moran.

 

[Barfo]

Damn, let Zeus try again plz.

 

[her209]

I'm shocked!
:shocked:

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: Phoenix86
I seriously doubt a thin wire used for ear buds/headsets redirected a significant amount of current to affect anything, am I off base here?

Theoretically....yeah, it could happen, but the electrical field alone that resulted could have killed her....since it didn;t, it was something else that saved her, but it was not the ipod.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: Danwar
Darwin missed

i mean seriously how stupid do you have to be to hide under a tree during a storm?

also, while i may not know that much about the behaviour of a lightning bolt , im pretty sure that the ipod (which is made of metal) attracted the bolt to her in the first place after it hit the tree.

Noes! Teh iPod cheated Darwin. Expect her and her boyfriend to die in a strange manner in the next few days.

On a more serious note - Link

A man wearing his iPod during a thunderstorm was hurled eight feet into the air when lightning hit a tree close by. The 37-year-old Canadian jogger was taken to a Vancouver hospital with burned parts of body, blown-out eardrums and fracture of a lower jaw. The burns covering the man's chest, neck and ear coincided with the positions of his iPod earphones he was wearing at the moment of the lightning strike.

As for the iPod, it was strapped to the jogger's chest, the area of the body that most suffered from burns. As specialists concluded, the electrical charge of the lightning passed along the earplugs that conducted it into and through the man's head. The electric current caused the muscle contraction that resulted in all the fractures in his lower jaw. The survived man is presently treated by the doctors. The jogger says he will not go jogging in a thunderstorm again, especially wearing any earplugs.

This incident was preceded by the similar situation in June 2006 - a 15-year-old girl in London was struck by lightning when she was talking on her cell phone, having suffered physical, auditory and mental disabilities. According to the doctors, the majority of the girl's injuries were close to the metal phone.

As mentioned by another expert, portable devices, including iPods and cell phones, are sometimes not harmful but helpful when lightning strikes. Martin Uman, director of the Lightning Research Center at the Florida University, says that wearing such a device does not increase one's chances of getting struck by lightning. The expert mentioned that half of those who are struck by lightning will anyway suffer eardrum damage, even if they are not wearing any device.

Metal sometimes conducts electricity into one's body, but in other cases it does the opposite. While our skin represents a natural electricity-repellant, if someone has metal covering the outside areas of one's body, it increases the risk of lightning flowing on the outside of the body, rather than the inside. As a matter of fact, an effect produced by a lightning strike on one's body is difficult to be predicted.

There even was a case when a man struck by lightning was carrying his umbrella which probably saved his life. The lightning went down the umbrella and went off his elbow into the hip. It means the lightning burned the bottom of his body and didn't harm the top half. However, the expert from Florida admitted that it's better to avoid leaving ear buds in one's ears during a thunderstorm, as in this case the ear buds imply metal wires in one's ears.

According to the report of the National Lightning Safety Institute, lightning is the second weather source of deaths in the US. Four hundred Americans are annually struck, and about 67 are killed by lightning - the death rate is higher than those caused by tornadoes or hurricanes. About three-quarter of people who survive after a lightning strike are left with severe disabilities.

The experts advise to stay inside during a thunderstorm. It is better not to take a shower, wash dishes, use phones or electrical devices, as electricity can pass through plumbing and wiring. If a person can't get inside a house, he should avoid taking cover under a tree - humans are better electricity conductors than trees. It is better to get into a car and roll up the windows.

 

[Danwar]

I stand corrected on the iphone attracting the ligthning bolt.

but still , i stand behind my statement on how stupid they were in hiding 'neath a tree during a storm.

 

[Gothgar]

well... she was holding hands with her boyfriend, it says they split the shock, that right there was probably what saved them.

Oh, and it says he carried her body away after they were struck by lightning, if she doesn't put out for that...

 

[knawlejj]

"Mind you the only thing Sophie was worried about was that her new iPod was frazzled."

Yeah, screw the boyfriend who just saved your life and could have permanent eye damage!

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Castle Rock, Colorado teenager Jason Bunch was wearing his iPod when he was struck by lightning, according to local news reports he was listening to Metallica.

The guy said he remembers the storm approaching and realised he had to get indoors. The next thing he recalls is lying in bed, bleeding from the ears and throwing up. He was later sent to hospital, but returned home on Tuesday.

Bunch's burns track down from his ears to his right hip where he was carrying his iPod, the paper notes. The iPod had a hole bored into it and the earbuds were reduced to copper residue.

The teenager would probably have been caught by lightning anyway, but it's possible the iPod earphone cables may have saved his life, directing the current quickly away from his chest and, crucially, his heart. Not that anyone should rely on any music player to protect them from storm injuries - it's best to keep out of the weather.

Link

UK doctors have warned of the danger of lightning strikes when using mobile phones outdoors during stormy weather.
In the British Medical Journal, they highlight the case of a teenager left with severe injuries after being struck by lightning when talking on her phone.

The metal in the phone directs the current into the body, they say.

A 15-year-old girl was struck by lightning while talking on her phone in a large park in London during stormy weather.

"Children particularly won't realise the risk" Dr Swinda Esprit

She has no recollection of the incident but suffered a cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated.

A year later, she has to use a wheelchair and has severe physical difficulties as well as brain damage which has led to emotional and cognitive problems.

In the ear where she was holding the phone, she has a burst eardrum and persistent hearing loss.

When a person is hit by lightning, the high resistance of human skin causes the lightning charge to flow over the body - often known as an 'external flashover'.

But some of the current can flow through the body. The more that flows through, the more internal damage it causes.

Conductive materials in direct contact with the skin such as liquid or metal objects increase the risk that the current will flow through the body and therefore cause internal injury.

Paul Taylor, a scientist at the Met Office said it could also be dangerous to carry a mobile in your pocket during a storm.

"It is well known within the thunderstorm detection community that wearing or carrying metallic objects can increase the likelihood of injury.

"It certainly adds to the intensity of the skin damage and the article certainly amplifies that here.

"I would treat a mobile phone as yet another piece of metal that people tend to carry on their persons like coins and rings".

But Ramsey Farragher of the astrophysics group at Cambridge University, said in the BMJ: "Stabbing a metal pole into the ground and holding onto it is asking for trouble.

"But holding a very small amount of metal inside an insulated plastic case is unlikely to enhance the electric field enough to increase the risk of a strike much further."

Chris Abraham of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association agreed.

He added: "The risk is that people may not have their mobile phones with them to call emergency services if someone is struck by lightening."

Snopes

This seems to be more common than I realised...

 

[rh71]

I'm going to grab someone I hate the next time I'm in a lightning storm.

 

[BlackTigers]

Originally posted by: Danwar
I stand corrected on the iphone attracting the ligthning bolt.

but still , i stand behind my statement on how stupid they were in hiding 'neath a tree during a storm.

How would the ipod attract the bolt anyway? They start at ground level.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Originally posted by: knawlejj
"Mind you the only thing Sophie was worried about was that her new iPod was frazzled."

Yeah, screw the boyfriend who just saved your life and could have permanent eye damage!

Yup, that is some gratitude for him carrying her to safety while half blind.

Originally posted by: Gothgar
well... she was holding hands with her boyfriend, it says they split the shock, that right there was probably what saved them.

Oh, and it says he carried her body away after they were struck by lightning, if she doesn't put out for that...

A2M? (in two years when it is legal obviously)

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: Danwar
but still , i stand behind my statement on how stupid they were in hiding 'neath a tree during a storm.

I'm with you on that one. Reminds me of The Simpsons where Homer grabbed a piece of metal to shelter him from rain and run under the highest tree he could find.

 

[Jeff7]

iFaraday


or Faraday's iCage.


(That's right, Faraday. Spin in that grave.)

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I call shens on most of this stuff. The amount of current that would be diverted away would be minuscule. Its not amazing for someone to survive a lightning strike. Considering the extremely small amount of current that has to flow through vital organs to kill them, the Ipod would contribute insignificantly to any survival chance the person has. And have these guys taken a high school class? A rubber sole will do NOTHING to protect you from lightning. Air is a perfectly good insulator, yet lightning can travel miles through it. Half a inch of rubber can't stop it.

 

[Anubis]

sweet looking burn/scar IMO

 

[randay]

Originally posted by: Phoenix86
I seriously doubt a thin wire used for ear buds/headsets redirected a significant amount of current to affect anything, am I off base here?

the scar doesnt lie.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

so is she lucky for surviving, or unlucky for getting hit by freakin lightning!

also, apropos sig jeff

 

[MrPickins]

Originally posted by: randay

Originally posted by: Phoenix86
I seriously doubt a thin wire used for ear buds/headsets redirected a significant amount of current to affect anything, am I off base here?

the scar doesnt lie.

Exactly.

My guess is that the current flowed preferentially in the wire, ionizing it in an instant. Then the bolt would have a path with very little resistance in the resulting plasma.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: tenshodo13
I call shens on most of this stuff. The amount of current that would be diverted away would be minuscule. Its not amazing for someone to survive a lightning strike. Considering the extremely small amount of current that has to flow through vital organs to kill them, the Ipod would contribute insignificantly to any survival chance the person has. And have these guys taken a high school class? A rubber sole will do NOTHING to protect you from lightning. Air is a perfectly good insulator, yet lightning can travel miles through it. Half a inch of rubber can't stop it.

Of course it's not going to stop it, but it just adds even more resistance to the lightning's path.

Originally posted by: BlackTigers

Originally posted by: Danwar
I stand corrected on the iphone attracting the ligthning bolt.

but still , i stand behind my statement on how stupid they were in hiding 'neath a tree during a storm.

How would the ipod attract the bolt anyway? They start at ground level.

Indeed they do, but that just means that the feeder was essentially coming off the top of their heads...