What happens to the survivor after being struck by lightning?

Lightning - a phenomenon that can cause serious damage

Most deaths from lightning strikes are instantaneous, due to cardiac arrest, as the lightning's enormous voltage disrupts the natural rhythm of the heart. Lightning strikes can also rupture the victim's eardrums due to the pressure wave, paralyze the respiratory system, or cause secondary burns from burning hair or clothing.

But lightning doesn’t kill all of its victims. Lightning passes through the human body in a fraction of a second, and about 90 percent of those struck survive, Live Science reported on July 15.

However, survivors often suffer neurological damage, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and neurological symptoms similar to those experienced by football players after concussions, such as impaired judgment and difficulty concentrating, according to Mary Ann Cooper, a lightning safety expert at the National Lightning Safety Council and professor emeritus of emergency medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Exactly how these brain injuries occur is unclear, Cooper said, due to the small number of lightning strikes and the relative lack of funding for research. However, experts believe the cause is a combination of tissue disruption from the lightning strike and blunt trauma from the sudden change in atmospheric pressure. These injuries can be severe, even debilitating. Some survivors have reported memory loss, chronic nerve pain, and depression.

Some survivors develop fern-like lightning patterns (Lichtenberg patterns) on their skin, thought to be caused by damaged blood vessels leaking fluid into surrounding tissues. In a 2020 report in The New England Journal of Medicine, a 54-year-old man struck by lightning initially felt dizzy, had some numbness in his body, and had lightning patterns on his left arm, thigh, back, and buttocks. He said the patterns were painless and disappeared after two days.

The world record for the most lightning injuries belongs to Roy Sullivan, a ranger at Shenandoah National Park in the United States. From 1942 to 1977, Sullivan was struck by lightning seven times. Despite burns from his hair and clothing catching fire, he survived all seven. He died at age 72 by suicide in 1983. Suicidal thoughts are another symptom that some lightning survivors experience, and they may experience severe pain and have trouble recovering from the accident, according to Steve Mashburn, who broke his back in a lightning strike in 1969.

Forensic pathologist Ryan Blumenthal warns that only about 3% to 5% of lightning injuries are direct. Contact injuries — which occur when a person touches another object like a tree or house that has been struck by lightning — account for another 5%.

The most common injuries are from nearby lightning and ground currents, which together account for more than 80%. In the case of nearby lightning, the victim is standing close to an object that is struck, receiving some of the "shot" voltage. Ground currents are similar, but occur when the lightning strikes the ground below the victim's feet. These incidents can harm multiple objects at once. "This is why entire flocks of animals are struck by lightning," Blumenthal explains. The remaining 10% to 12% of lightning injuries originate from the "upward current" phenomenon, which occurs when positively charged electrical forces on the ground are pulled upward by negatively charged storm clouds.

According to VnExpress