19 ms·

I was struck by lightning yesterday—and boy am I sore

448 points by kryptiskt 13y ago

lostlogin 13y ago
We had a wood burner installed - they put up the chimney and were going to earth it the next day. Bad idea. Lightning fried a Mac SE30, made its enormous colour (!!) 19 inch screen only show orange and ruined the phones.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
jostmey 13y ago
Uh, it would be wise to see and doctor immediately! The electrical shock may have damaged your internal organs, even if there are no apparent external burns.
- obviouslygreen 13y ago
  Yeah, I'm not a big fan of hospitals, but this is one of those potential "oh, yeah, internal bleeding... that wouldn't have been quite such a problem if you had stopped in, you know, a few days ago, genius" moments.
- Zimahl 13y ago
  I was going to say that too - those Lichtenburg scar pictures that are linked don't look good. While they might seem 'cool' aren't those just 3rd degree burn scars? You have to wonder about the 3rd degree burns on the inside that you can't see.
  - icebraining 13y ago
    The scar pictures aren't his: "nor did I end up with a badass Lichtenburg scar"
    - Zimahl 13y ago
      I know that he didn't receive any scarring externally. My point was that anything that can do things like that externally could have resulted in very bad things internally.
feniv 13y ago
The odds of getting hit by a lightning is actually surprisingly high (1 in 3000 in an average lifetime). He should really go see a doctor though, since there's a 70% chance that he may be affected with serious long-term conditions. [source : http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0623_040623_lightningfacts.html http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0623_040623_... ]
- kunai 13y ago
  I know that I've been on an xkcd spree lately, but for some reason the HN frontpage is filled with circumstances that match. http://xkcd.com/795/ http://xkcd.com/795/
  - famousactress 13y ago
    I'm surprised no one's written a bot yet that auto-picks the most appropriate xkcd for an HN post and posts a 'relevant xkcd' comment :)
    - kunai 13y ago
      You've just given me a new scripting project to undertake over the weekend. :)
      - famousactress 13y ago
        Good luck! I imagine there'll be some interesting challenges. I don't know how useful the alt-text will be since I guess it's sort of a cheeky second-comic, so coming up with clever ways to index relevant ideas/terms will be interesting. You'd probly get some impressive looking results by just taking the echo-chamber approach of looking for HN links to comics and index what the discussion was about. Hell, just hard-coding comments for horse battery staple and bobby tables would probably pass 30% of the unit tests :)
        nitrogen 13y ago
Jabbles 13y ago
"The EMTs took my vitals and urged me to go to the hospital for testing. I declined" At the risk of derailing the thread - is this because going to A&E in the US is expensive? I wonder how his hearing is.
- kylebgorman 13y ago
  just FYI, most Americans, even many familiar with Britishisms, don't know what "A&E" is (or rather they think it's a cable channel). (For those following along at home: A&E is "Accident and emergency [department]", or what Americans call the ER.)
  - Jabbles 13y ago
    Ah, sorry about that. Most people in Britain would be delighted and honoured to be invited to see ER...
    - taejo 13y ago
      And again, for the Americans (and others), in Britain ER is Elizabeth regina. I.e., the Queen.
  - ams6110 13y ago
    I thought it was called the "casualty department"
    - k-mcgrady 13y ago
      I know a lot of people who call it casualty but on signs at the hospital it's usually A&E (Accident & Emergency). It might be regional or something that's changed over the years.
- lojack 13y ago
  If you don't have insurance it can be quite expensive. The technical director for Ars Technica, I'm guessing has insurance. He probably didn't go to the hospital because of the potential absurd wait times.
effbott 13y ago
Only in America would somebody think twice about seeing doctor after being struck by lightning.
- sneak 13y ago
  There's a whole lot of hyperbole here. There are lots of places that this holds true.
  - javert 13y ago
    Yes, but we should be completely ashamed that our medical system is so poor in every way. I mean, who are we comparing to, Zimbabwe? I personally am in favor of copying the (excellent and very effective) veterinary model for our human medical care, not continuing to copy the model that was used for governing the Soviet Union.
    - brightsize 13y ago
      Right, like when the patient gets really sick, or care uncomfortably expensive, he/she gets the Magic Needle.
  - effbott 13y ago
    Yeah, it was really meant as more of a dark joke than a serious point. But it does make you wonder what people consider "serious enough" to warrant a trip to the hospital, given that medical costs are so high.
  - TillE 13y ago
    It's only a very small exaggeration if we consider the context of HN, which almost always addresses middle-class people in developed nations.
  - Florin_Andrei 13y ago
    > There are lots of places that this holds true. Yes. See: banana republics.
  - 13y ago
shaydoc 13y ago
Lightning toasted my house in 2007, just arrived home 30 mins after it happened, glad I wasn't in the house given the magnitude of the destruction...TV exploded scrapnel everywhere, ceilings down upstairs and down....but worst of all, dealing with our insurance company for damages... Can't believe this guy is not the only family member to have been hit, insane!
- robflynn 13y ago
  One of my co-workers was working with some radio equipment years ago. A storm started moving in and he decided to go turn off the equipment and unplug things. Just as he got over to the equipment, lightning struck. He woke up on his floor, could smell something burning, and found electrical components all over the place -- some embedded in the wall. What happened afterward was kind of amusing. He went to the ER and signed in. The front desk nurse said something about their being a long wait (this was before they wrote down the reason.) Him describing the doctor running into the room moments later saying "You got struck by what!?" was pretty funny. They ran tests and thankfully everything was fine. He didn't take a direct hit, I guess. No crazy scars or anything... hearing, heart, et. al were fine. Anyway, my main point is, lightning is some crazy stuff.
- derleth 13y ago
  > scrapnel The usual word is 'shrapnel', but this actually makes more sense in a portmanteau word sort of way: It's scraps that were hurled around as shrapnel. Scrapnel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau
  - nsxwolf 13y ago
    And to be extra pedantic, the TV tube would have imploded.
  - shaydoc 13y ago
    Très bien, my shoddy typing, lol...
  - gems 13y ago
alxndr 13y ago
Wow, glad he's okay!
ChuckMcM 13y ago
First, as others have said, if you get hit by lightning or have any sort of severe electrical shock, so see a doctor and be checked out. The reasoning here is that any of the current that passes through you will create internal burns, resulting any number of issues. The second thing is that often these voltages travel on the surface of a conductor (called the skin effect) rather than through the middle so if you don't have a hole in your skin with a burn mark around it (that is what you are looking for in step one above) you might dodge serious damage. A friend of mine in high school was hit by lightning why riding his motorcycle off road around Las Vegas (back when it was easier to do that :-) and was fine except for two pretty bad burns, one where his belt buckle was (apparently it got red hot) and on his feet where the metal in his riding boots was similarly heated up.
- sharkweek 13y ago
  Yes, please, Jason if you're here, for the love of God please go see a doctor -- Step-dad is a firefighter; so many times they get to the scenes of accidents, and everything looks fine on the outside, patient feels completely fine so refuses ride to the hospital, but then 2-3 hours (sometimes even up to a day later) they end up far worse off and sometimes even dead from internal injuries that EMTs are not qualified to assess.
  - nostromo 13y ago
    Ambulance rides are crazy expensive and insurance companies like to question if you actually needed one. If you don't need the EMT, just take Lyft to the ER.
    - flexd 13y ago
      It's such a surreal concept to me that having to be picked up by emergency services will cost you money. I feel so incredibly lucky to live in a country where healthcare is free.
      - sepeth 13y ago
Jabbles 13y ago
I wonder if teflon coated shoes would be effective, if rubber are not? Might have a problem with grip though... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_resistivity_and_conductivity#Resistivity_of_various_materials https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_resistivity_and_con...
- CoffeeDregs 13y ago
  I wonder if teflon coated shoes would be effective, if rubber are not? No. You have to consider the distance through air. Electricity will still take the path of least resistance which, even if you're wearing rubber or teflon shoes, is still just a couple of centimeters out of the shoe and to the ground. As the article points out: the lightning just traveled a kilometer to get to you, so why would it care about a few centimeters or inches or meters of insulating material when it would just hop through the air around it and to the ground.--- --- I suppose that you could argue that a really large teflon pad would increase the aggregate resistance (through your nice, self-contained ocean and then over the large teflon pad) to such an extent that the lightning would pass by you and ground directly, but those would be giant shoes and the little gap between them would probably defeat the whole purpose of wearing giant teflon snow-shoes.
  - glurgh 13y ago
    It doesn't seem inconceivable that wearing shoes takes you out of the path of least resistance as compared to some other path, say, the metal-framed shelving you are standing next to. I don't think wearing shoes is any kind of practical way to avoid getting hit by lightning but the 'kilometers of air' argument seems sort of wrongheaded. You don't need to become a more resistant path to ground than a kilometer of air - you just have to be more so than other paths. How long the discharge traveled to form that path doesn't really matter.
    - comrade_ogilvy 13y ago
      Unfortunately, simply reaching the ground may not be sufficient. The ground is not necessarily a good enough conductor to dissipate the full charge quickly. The rest of the charge flows near the ground looking for more ground. Most lightning strike survivors are probably surviving "near misses", albeit sometimes ones where substantial electricity flowed through their body. A direct hit is probably going to be lethal nearly 100% of time -- there is a lot of energy in a lightning strike.
niels_olson 13y ago
If someone knows this guy, please tell him to consult a physician. Sounds like he may be experiencing rhabdomyolysis. When massive muscle contractions occur involuntarily, the fibers tend to break down and those proteins spill into the blood. This spillage may not peak for 12-36 hours. This can clog the kidneys and lead to acute kidney failure, which can then lead to acute heart failure, all told potentially 48 hours out. HN user arn is a nephrologist, he could comment more intelligently. If anything, he should make sure he's on somebody's radar. Edit, source: I'm a physician.
- dnautics 13y ago
  isn't there also a condition where electicical voltage-lysed cells spill out their contents and trigger cascading apoptosis, leading to death, but only after a few days? I don't know if there's a prophylaxis for this, but if there is, it might seem prudent.
  - niels_olson 13y ago
    Rhabdo is probably what you're thinking of. As a minor point, traumatic cell death is generally considered necrotic, not apoptotic. Apoptosis is programmed cell death.
    - dnautics 13y ago
      Yeah I was under the impression that the initial trauma released specific factors into the blood that trigger apoptosis away from the trauma site... But I guess rhabdo is what I was thinking of.
sp332 13y ago
For all of you wondering about the doctor thing, here's his answer from the comments on that page: Jason Marlin Technical Director reply 29 minutes ago Story Author report spam ignore user >Onerunjunior wrote: >I don't understand how you can justify not going to the doctor for testing after you've been hit by lightning. If not for yourself, go get checked out for your wife and kid. It's incredibly stupid not to. No I agree and do plan on going - was going to try and get in today. I probably should have just cruised with the guys yesterday but they were so nonchalant about the whole thing I was like "welp, guess only losers see the doc when struck by zeus". Edit: from another comment I should be better about these things, but have had some fairly unimpressive attempts at diagnosis for various issues over the past few years. I feel a bit like if you don't have blood squirting out of your eyes, it's assumed that you're either a) trying to score meds or b) seeking attention (why not both?). HOWEVER, I have scheduled an appointment for tomorrow morning. I'll update the post if I die :)
jerrya 13y ago
Men are often discouraged by society from seeking first aid or admitting any sort of ailment or weakness. Plus Emergency Rooms are known for very long wait times, especially if you are otherwise looking in good health. (triage favors the folks bleeding out). If you are presented a bill, it's not just an ER charge but a charge from the ER, from the doctor, the anesthetist, and seemingly everyone staffing the ER seems to have their own bill and billing agency. That's above and beyond the high cost of ER care.
- jevinskie 13y ago
  It can cost several thousand dollars for the ambulance ride alone! No wonder people are worried about going to the ER.
  - nsxwolf 13y ago
    Willing to bet technical director of Ars has insurance.
    - hkmurakami 13y ago
      Will usually come out to ~$500 even after insurance (at least in California, where I've been in an ambulance a few times -- much to my displeasure)
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
- nsxwolf 13y ago
  I don't know if the pressure to "man up" extends to lightning strikes. I think you get a pass on that one.
  - alberich 13y ago
    Unless you are the Black Knight, eh? It's just a flesh wound!
hcarvalhoalves 13y ago
Well, that's quite amazing it chased him inside the house, and that he survived considering the ridiculously high punch these things pack. I've experienced what it can do. Here in Brazil lighting is common during summer. I had one strike a metal pole in a cement slab atop my house once. It heated the pole so hot it vaporized (nowhere to be found), and the slab exploded in hundreds of pieces. All that debris showering the roof sounded like hail - only after I stepped outside I found out it wasn't. The ground was covered in debris, still hot. I still have one of the pieces somewhere.
kposehn 13y ago
I've been nearly struck several times. I love lightning, and apparently it loves me right back. And wants to touch me. What I have learned is this: 1. You will almost never get warning before lightning strikes. Only once did I get the hair-on-end. Every other time, no warning whatsoever before discharge. However, as is obvious, highly active cloud-to-cloud lightning indicates an extremely active cell, with extreme danger. 2. Lightning can reach a /long/ way to get you. The closest call I ever had, the storm was 15 miles away. I was standing outside watching it and it struck 2 feet away from me. It wasn't a stringer either - it was a full discharge and sent me flying (more through my own surprise than physical force). 3. If you can hear thunder, you can get struck quite easily. 4. A few drops of rain increase the chances of being struck by several orders of magnitude. The atmosphere is far more conductive and therefor danger skyrockets. 5. Lightning will strike the most out-of-way/odd places. I've watched it blitz trees in a deep valley over and over again without hitting the peaks once. There is no predicting what is likely to get struck. 6. In an instable environment, any cloud that is rising rapidly is extremely suspect. I once was watching a storm that was cranking away about 10 miles off. A small cumulus tower went up next to me, but didn't look like much. 30 seconds later it discharged only about 1/4 mile away. 7. Some wikipedia entries and other sources state lightning is uncommon over water and the open ocean. This is completely untrue - there is a lot of it. If you are boating and see a squall, be prepared to book it out of there as a boat is a highly dangerous place to be during a storm. 8. A fantastic shot of the close-range effects of lightning is 00:01:15 into this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7K3m2zHEhs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7K3m2zHEhs What you'll notice about that shot is the effect it has and how very clear it is, along with how quiet it is at close range. The sparks off the metal roof, the movement of the actual channel, even the rate at which it discharges is apparent. Probably one of the best shots so far (though I welcome others!) Stay safe.
- kposehn 13y ago
  This is also an excellent clip showing stepped leaders in extremely slow-motion (the electrical leaders that lead to lightning strikes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLWIBrweSU8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLWIBrweSU8
- pge 13y ago
Zedronar 13y ago
Scumbag wizard.
mindcrime 13y ago
Interesting that he had just moved to North Carolina. Strangely enough, NC is very high up (#4) on the list of "most dangerous states for lighting accidents"[1]. I'm not not sure exactly what it is about NC that makes us so prone to lightning related accidents, but we sure do have a lot of them. I'd always speculated that it was something to do with geography / climate... just the right sort of semi-tropical climate to have lots of severe late-afternoon summertime thunderstorms or something. But when you look at the top 10 list, they seem to be fairly spread out. South, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest and Northeast all represented. The only conspicuous absence, to me, is the Pacific Northwest. Edit: Did some more exploring... this graphic[2] makes it more apparent that there may be a geographic / climatic correlation. Southern states, Eastern states and Southwestern states seem to be particularly prone to lighting strikes and damage, with the Midwest, West and Pacific Northwest seemingly safer. But, when you weight by population, the pattern seems much more muddled and nonsensical. Hmm... [1]: http://weather.about.com/od/thunderstormsandlightning/tp/lightningstates.htm http://weather.about.com/od/thunderstormsandlightning/tp/lig... [2]: http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_lls/fatalities_us.html http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_lls/fatalities_us.html
- kposehn 13y ago
  North Carolina is on the eastern ass-end of a common circulation pattern of cold fronts. They get a lot of the big squall-line fronts with heavy/torrential downpours in storm cells, while the mountains act as an extra lifting mechanism. With that combo, you get much more lightning overall. This may account for the high death rate. The Pacific Northwest has much fewer thunderstorms where population is concentrated. Go east of the cascades and there are far more storms, but far fewer people.
  - chrisbennet 13y ago
    Or they could just have a lot of sinners... ;-)
  - brightsize 13y ago
    Not really. I've lived in Spokane for the past ten years and we almost never get thunderstorms here. I can remember one big one a couple of years ago where I thought we were going to get a tornado (something else that never happens here), but no such luck. That was the only storm excitement in forever. In general it's a fairly hot/dry place in the summer, and I don't think we get that magic combo of heat and humidity needed to cook up a good storm.
eaurouge 13y ago
No one has mentioned the use of a lightning rod on the roof to provide an alternate path. Does anyone know how effective these are in practice?
- mmagin 13y ago
  My understanding of lightning rods is that they help more in that they help dissipate charges from the surrounding air, preventing a strike, rather than actually taking the strike, in most cases. Though, in such case lightning struck the building, it's much more likely it would go through the lightning protection system if properly installed.
  - btilly 13y ago
    My understanding of lightning rods is that they help more in that they help dissipate charges from the surrounding air, preventing a strike, rather than actually taking the strike, in most cases. Your understanding is incorrect. See, for example http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/lightning/lightning_faq.htm http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/lightning/lightning_faq.ht..., for evidence that lightning rods increase the odds of being struck by lightning and decrease the damage if you are.
    - eaurouge 13y ago
      From your link: Lightning rods will not prevent your building from being struck. They actually INCREASE it by making your house TALLER. The purpose of the lightning rod is to direct the current from the lightning to the ground along a preferred path instead of to the house. However, this works only if the rod is connected to the ground with heavy gauge wire. It's a bit more complex than that. From my quick browse on the Internet, it seems there's a slight increase in odds caused by the increase in height. But if the rod can actively and effectively dissipate the electric field then that should mitigate the increase in odds (and then some) caused by the added height. Finally, if well constructed, a lightning rod will reduce the amount of damage caused.
      - 13y ago
quannabe 13y ago
"I mean, my grandmother was struck by lightning twice" Wait, what?
sc00ter 13y ago
From his comments defending not visiting ER given a recent unrelated health issue: The hospital billed $11,000 for a cat scan; the insurance paid 6k.' Seriously, if you need a an elective scan and it's going to cost you more than a couple of grand after insurance: take a vacation, fly first class, stay in a 5 star hotel, get seen privately in a first class facility, have a relaxing rejuvenating break, and come home with change. Cost of a full-body CT scan in Europe?: < $1000.[1] [1] http://www.privatehealth.co.uk/private-healthcare-services/diagnostic-imaging/ct-scans/ct-scan-prices/ http://www.privatehealth.co.uk/private-healthcare-services/d... Other parts of Europe (and no doubt elsewhere outside the US) will be much cheaper still.
- lostlogin 13y ago
  Cost of full body CT scan may be greater than that - it would likely put you in Hiroshima-survivor radiation dose range. Edit: did some reading. The risk is surprisingly low. For a 45 year old a single whole body scan has a mortality risk of 0.08%, and if the same person had one annually thereafter till 75, its a 1.9% lifetime risk. David, Brennee and Ellison in Radiology, 2004.
merraksh 13y ago
From one top comment: Buildings with rods didn't get struck; buildings without, did. And the conflict was finally settled, once and for all, when a church somewhere in Spain was struck by lightning, setting off explosives that were stored underneath, leveling the town and killing most of the people in it. I couldn't find references to this. Does anyone know any?
- Aardwolf 13y ago
  I also tried to search for one and also couldn't find one. However, my searching brought me to this rather interesting article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_artificial_non-nuclear_explosions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_artificial_...
  - merraksh 13y ago
    I saw this link and didn't bother to check it, but I think you hit the jackpot: Palace of the Grand Master Explosion, in Rhodes On 4 April 1856, the Ottomans had storaged a large amount of gunpowder in the palace and the adjacent church, which were also full of people. In that time, it was considered that the ringing of bells could prevent the formation of storms. Unfortunately, a lightning hit the gunpowder, triggering a huge blast that killed 4,000 people. Thanks.
biot 13y ago
There's a great comment on lightning and religion: http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/05/i-was-struck-by-lightning-yesterday-and-boy-am-i-sore/?comments=1&post=24552037#comment-24552037 http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/05/i-was-struck-by-light...
rusbra 13y ago
Sounds like crazyness to me
BrotherErryn 13y ago
Boy, that takes me back to the two times I was struck. 15 the first time, my legs didn't work for about 15 minutes. Second time I only know about because witnesses told me (it's a black space in my memory).
tn13 13y ago
He aint got no superpowers ?
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
raymondduke 13y ago
I think the most surprising thing about this was that I learned people still use IRC.
- sdfjkl 13y ago
  About 600k users every day, and that's only the public networks. More statistics: http://irc.netsplit.de/networks/summary.php http://irc.netsplit.de/networks/summary.php For developers working in teams, there is no better way to communicate as a group. Text chat has a scroll back, you can opt to participate in the conversation or just lurk, check it on your own time but are never interrupted in your focus by it (unless you set it up that way).
fakeer 13y ago
Guys, I am often caught in the rain(in Bangalore it's raining these days - and I've, seeing B'lore traffic, decided to rely on public transport) as I have to walk a lot, from drop points - and I keep walking, reaching home sometimes partially soaked and sometimes fully. So, should I just stop it? I mean I feel good getting soaked in the rain from time to time. And when do I know, if there's a way, that 'okay, no fooling around in rains today - looks like it's bad today'? Or I should just avoid altogether? Also, as the OP has mentioned he was in a room so I am sure it was well insulated, so that means standing in the shop sheds is just gonna save me from the rain and not the lighting, right? What about standing beneath dense and big trees? And I wear a leather shoe or sports shoe - both with plastic/fiber/rubber soles(I'm not sure) - so they are gonna help? Umbrella? Cars, with all those metals around must be most unsafe then?
- honzzz 13y ago
  You're safe in a car because the lightning will travel around the surface of the vehicle and then go to ground.This occurs because the vehicle acts like a Faraday cage. http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/lightning8.htm http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/li...
- GFischer 13y ago
  I've walked in the rain for at least a decade (in Uruguay) and so have most of my classmates and friends, and never even heard of someone getting struck by lightning. The odds are still pretty low (they vary according to Google, but the lowest estimate is 1 in 3000 in your lifetime, with the highest being 1 in 500.000). I'd be a lot more worried about cancer (1 in 6 chances).
rttlesnke 13y ago
This page has a lot of information about lightning: http://sciencebasedlife.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/the-science-and-myths-behind-lightning-strikes/ http://sciencebasedlife.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/the-science...
ndesaulniers 13y ago
The image at the top of the article is Derek Rigg's album art for Iron Maiden's 1985 Live After Death live album. It is one of my favorite album arts. It is the desktop wallpaper on most of my computers. It's so intricate, I could stare at it all day and notice new things hidden in the image. You can see the rest of his work for Iron Maiden here: http://derek.server311.com/ http://derek.server311.com/
nnq 13y ago
> I mean, my grandmother was struck by lightning twice—how bad can it be? ...uhm ...can anyone here compute the probability of 2 people in one family being struck by lighting in this timerange/pattern.
- michael_dorfman 13y ago
  I worked in an IT department of about 20, of which two employees had each been hit twice.
- dclowd9901 13y ago
  After reading through this thread, you'd think it was commonplace. My guess is that people have bastardized the concept of "being struck by lightning," in that they weren't struck, just close to a strike.
kybernetyk 13y ago
I don't understand why he didn't go to the hospital. You might feel fine but your heart might have got a little disturbed - and that can be enough to cause serious complications.

448 points by kryptiskt 13y ago

We had a wood burner installed - they put up the chimney and were going to earth it the next day. Bad idea. Lightning fried a Mac SE30, made its enormous colour (!!) 19 inch screen only show orange and ruined the phones.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

jostmey 13y ago

Uh, it would be wise to see and doctor immediately! The electrical shock may have damaged your internal organs, even if there are no apparent external burns.

obviouslygreen 13y ago
Yeah, I'm not a big fan of hospitals, but this is one of those potential "oh, yeah, internal bleeding... that wouldn't have been quite such a problem if you had stopped in, you know, a few days ago, genius" moments.
Zimahl 13y ago
I was going to say that too - those Lichtenburg scar pictures that are linked don't look good. While they might seem 'cool' aren't those just 3rd degree burn scars? You have to wonder about the 3rd degree burns on the inside that you can't see.
- icebraining 13y ago
  The scar pictures aren't his: "nor did I end up with a badass Lichtenburg scar"
  - Zimahl 13y ago
    I know that he didn't receive any scarring externally. My point was that anything that can do things like that externally could have resulted in very bad things internally.

feniv 13y ago

The odds of getting hit by a lightning is actually surprisingly high (1 in 3000 in an average lifetime). He should really go see a doctor though, since there's a 70% chance that he may be affected with serious long-term conditions. [source : http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0623_040623_lightningfacts.html http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0623_040623_... ]

kunai 13y ago
I know that I've been on an xkcd spree lately, but for some reason the HN frontpage is filled with circumstances that match. http://xkcd.com/795/ http://xkcd.com/795/
- famousactress 13y ago
  I'm surprised no one's written a bot yet that auto-picks the most appropriate xkcd for an HN post and posts a 'relevant xkcd' comment :)
  - kunai 13y ago
    You've just given me a new scripting project to undertake over the weekend. :)
    - famousactress 13y ago
      Good luck! I imagine there'll be some interesting challenges. I don't know how useful the alt-text will be since I guess it's sort of a cheeky second-comic, so coming up with clever ways to index relevant ideas/terms will be interesting. You'd probly get some impressive looking results by just taking the echo-chamber approach of looking for HN links to comics and index what the discussion was about. Hell, just hard-coding comments for horse battery staple and bobby tables would probably pass 30% of the unit tests :)
      - nitrogen 13y ago

Jabbles 13y ago

"The EMTs took my vitals and urged me to go to the hospital for testing. I declined" At the risk of derailing the thread - is this because going to A&E in the US is expensive? I wonder how his hearing is.

kylebgorman 13y ago
just FYI, most Americans, even many familiar with Britishisms, don't know what "A&E" is (or rather they think it's a cable channel). (For those following along at home: A&E is "Accident and emergency [department]", or what Americans call the ER.)
- Jabbles 13y ago
  Ah, sorry about that. Most people in Britain would be delighted and honoured to be invited to see ER...
  - taejo 13y ago
    And again, for the Americans (and others), in Britain ER is Elizabeth regina. I.e., the Queen.
- ams6110 13y ago
  I thought it was called the "casualty department"
  - k-mcgrady 13y ago
    I know a lot of people who call it casualty but on signs at the hospital it's usually A&E (Accident & Emergency). It might be regional or something that's changed over the years.
lojack 13y ago
If you don't have insurance it can be quite expensive. The technical director for Ars Technica, I'm guessing has insurance. He probably didn't go to the hospital because of the potential absurd wait times.

effbott 13y ago

Only in America would somebody think twice about seeing doctor after being struck by lightning.

sneak 13y ago
There's a whole lot of hyperbole here. There are lots of places that this holds true.
- javert 13y ago
  Yes, but we should be completely ashamed that our medical system is so poor in every way. I mean, who are we comparing to, Zimbabwe? I personally am in favor of copying the (excellent and very effective) veterinary model for our human medical care, not continuing to copy the model that was used for governing the Soviet Union.
  - brightsize 13y ago
    Right, like when the patient gets really sick, or care uncomfortably expensive, he/she gets the Magic Needle.
- effbott 13y ago
  Yeah, it was really meant as more of a dark joke than a serious point. But it does make you wonder what people consider "serious enough" to warrant a trip to the hospital, given that medical costs are so high.
- TillE 13y ago
  It's only a very small exaggeration if we consider the context of HN, which almost always addresses middle-class people in developed nations.
- Florin_Andrei 13y ago
  > There are lots of places that this holds true. Yes. See: banana republics.
- 13y ago

shaydoc 13y ago

Lightning toasted my house in 2007, just arrived home 30 mins after it happened, glad I wasn't in the house given the magnitude of the destruction...TV exploded scrapnel everywhere, ceilings down upstairs and down....but worst of all, dealing with our insurance company for damages... Can't believe this guy is not the only family member to have been hit, insane!

robflynn 13y ago
One of my co-workers was working with some radio equipment years ago. A storm started moving in and he decided to go turn off the equipment and unplug things. Just as he got over to the equipment, lightning struck. He woke up on his floor, could smell something burning, and found electrical components all over the place -- some embedded in the wall. What happened afterward was kind of amusing. He went to the ER and signed in. The front desk nurse said something about their being a long wait (this was before they wrote down the reason.) Him describing the doctor running into the room moments later saying "You got struck by what!?" was pretty funny. They ran tests and thankfully everything was fine. He didn't take a direct hit, I guess. No crazy scars or anything... hearing, heart, et. al were fine. Anyway, my main point is, lightning is some crazy stuff.
derleth 13y ago
> scrapnel The usual word is 'shrapnel', but this actually makes more sense in a portmanteau word sort of way: It's scraps that were hurled around as shrapnel. Scrapnel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau
- nsxwolf 13y ago
  And to be extra pedantic, the TV tube would have imploded.
- shaydoc 13y ago
  Très bien, my shoddy typing, lol...
- gems 13y ago

alxndr 13y ago

Wow, glad he's okay!

ChuckMcM 13y ago

First, as others have said, if you get hit by lightning or have any sort of severe electrical shock, so see a doctor and be checked out. The reasoning here is that any of the current that passes through you will create internal burns, resulting any number of issues. The second thing is that often these voltages travel on the surface of a conductor (called the skin effect) rather than through the middle so if you don't have a hole in your skin with a burn mark around it (that is what you are looking for in step one above) you might dodge serious damage. A friend of mine in high school was hit by lightning why riding his motorcycle off road around Las Vegas (back when it was easier to do that :-) and was fine except for two pretty bad burns, one where his belt buckle was (apparently it got red hot) and on his feet where the metal in his riding boots was similarly heated up.

sharkweek 13y ago
Yes, please, Jason if you're here, for the love of God please go see a doctor -- Step-dad is a firefighter; so many times they get to the scenes of accidents, and everything looks fine on the outside, patient feels completely fine so refuses ride to the hospital, but then 2-3 hours (sometimes even up to a day later) they end up far worse off and sometimes even dead from internal injuries that EMTs are not qualified to assess.
- nostromo 13y ago
  Ambulance rides are crazy expensive and insurance companies like to question if you actually needed one. If you don't need the EMT, just take Lyft to the ER.
  - flexd 13y ago
    It's such a surreal concept to me that having to be picked up by emergency services will cost you money. I feel so incredibly lucky to live in a country where healthcare is free.
    - sepeth 13y ago

Jabbles 13y ago

I wonder if teflon coated shoes would be effective, if rubber are not? Might have a problem with grip though... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_resistivity_and_conductivity#Resistivity_of_various_materials https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_resistivity_and_con...

CoffeeDregs 13y ago
I wonder if teflon coated shoes would be effective, if rubber are not? No. You have to consider the distance through air. Electricity will still take the path of least resistance which, even if you're wearing rubber or teflon shoes, is still just a couple of centimeters out of the shoe and to the ground. As the article points out: the lightning just traveled a kilometer to get to you, so why would it care about a few centimeters or inches or meters of insulating material when it would just hop through the air around it and to the ground.--- --- I suppose that you could argue that a really large teflon pad would increase the aggregate resistance (through your nice, self-contained ocean and then over the large teflon pad) to such an extent that the lightning would pass by you and ground directly, but those would be giant shoes and the little gap between them would probably defeat the whole purpose of wearing giant teflon snow-shoes.
- glurgh 13y ago
  It doesn't seem inconceivable that wearing shoes takes you out of the path of least resistance as compared to some other path, say, the metal-framed shelving you are standing next to. I don't think wearing shoes is any kind of practical way to avoid getting hit by lightning but the 'kilometers of air' argument seems sort of wrongheaded. You don't need to become a more resistant path to ground than a kilometer of air - you just have to be more so than other paths. How long the discharge traveled to form that path doesn't really matter.
  - comrade_ogilvy 13y ago
    Unfortunately, simply reaching the ground may not be sufficient. The ground is not necessarily a good enough conductor to dissipate the full charge quickly. The rest of the charge flows near the ground looking for more ground. Most lightning strike survivors are probably surviving "near misses", albeit sometimes ones where substantial electricity flowed through their body. A direct hit is probably going to be lethal nearly 100% of time -- there is a lot of energy in a lightning strike.

niels_olson 13y ago

If someone knows this guy, please tell him to consult a physician. Sounds like he may be experiencing rhabdomyolysis. When massive muscle contractions occur involuntarily, the fibers tend to break down and those proteins spill into the blood. This spillage may not peak for 12-36 hours. This can clog the kidneys and lead to acute kidney failure, which can then lead to acute heart failure, all told potentially 48 hours out. HN user arn is a nephrologist, he could comment more intelligently. If anything, he should make sure he's on somebody's radar. Edit, source: I'm a physician.

dnautics 13y ago
isn't there also a condition where electicical voltage-lysed cells spill out their contents and trigger cascading apoptosis, leading to death, but only after a few days? I don't know if there's a prophylaxis for this, but if there is, it might seem prudent.
- niels_olson 13y ago
  Rhabdo is probably what you're thinking of. As a minor point, traumatic cell death is generally considered necrotic, not apoptotic. Apoptosis is programmed cell death.
  - dnautics 13y ago
    Yeah I was under the impression that the initial trauma released specific factors into the blood that trigger apoptosis away from the trauma site... But I guess rhabdo is what I was thinking of.

sp332 13y ago

For all of you wondering about the doctor thing, here's his answer from the comments on that page: Jason Marlin Technical Director reply 29 minutes ago Story Author report spam ignore user >Onerunjunior wrote: >I don't understand how you can justify not going to the doctor for testing after you've been hit by lightning. If not for yourself, go get checked out for your wife and kid. It's incredibly stupid not to. No I agree and do plan on going - was going to try and get in today. I probably should have just cruised with the guys yesterday but they were so nonchalant about the whole thing I was like "welp, guess only losers see the doc when struck by zeus". Edit: from another comment I should be better about these things, but have had some fairly unimpressive attempts at diagnosis for various issues over the past few years. I feel a bit like if you don't have blood squirting out of your eyes, it's assumed that you're either a) trying to score meds or b) seeking attention (why not both?). HOWEVER, I have scheduled an appointment for tomorrow morning. I'll update the post if I die :)

jerrya 13y ago

Men are often discouraged by society from seeking first aid or admitting any sort of ailment or weakness. Plus Emergency Rooms are known for very long wait times, especially if you are otherwise looking in good health. (triage favors the folks bleeding out). If you are presented a bill, it's not just an ER charge but a charge from the ER, from the doctor, the anesthetist, and seemingly everyone staffing the ER seems to have their own bill and billing agency. That's above and beyond the high cost of ER care.

jevinskie 13y ago
It can cost several thousand dollars for the ambulance ride alone! No wonder people are worried about going to the ER.
- nsxwolf 13y ago
  Willing to bet technical director of Ars has insurance.
  - hkmurakami 13y ago
    Will usually come out to ~$500 even after insurance (at least in California, where I've been in an ambulance a few times -- much to my displeasure)
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
nsxwolf 13y ago
I don't know if the pressure to "man up" extends to lightning strikes. I think you get a pass on that one.
- alberich 13y ago
  Unless you are the Black Knight, eh? It's just a flesh wound!

hcarvalhoalves 13y ago

Well, that's quite amazing it chased him inside the house, and that he survived considering the ridiculously high punch these things pack. I've experienced what it can do. Here in Brazil lighting is common during summer. I had one strike a metal pole in a cement slab atop my house once. It heated the pole so hot it vaporized (nowhere to be found), and the slab exploded in hundreds of pieces. All that debris showering the roof sounded like hail - only after I stepped outside I found out it wasn't. The ground was covered in debris, still hot. I still have one of the pieces somewhere.

kposehn 13y ago

I've been nearly struck several times. I love lightning, and apparently it loves me right back. And wants to touch me. What I have learned is this: 1. You will almost never get warning before lightning strikes. Only once did I get the hair-on-end. Every other time, no warning whatsoever before discharge. However, as is obvious, highly active cloud-to-cloud lightning indicates an extremely active cell, with extreme danger. 2. Lightning can reach a /long/ way to get you. The closest call I ever had, the storm was 15 miles away. I was standing outside watching it and it struck 2 feet away from me. It wasn't a stringer either - it was a full discharge and sent me flying (more through my own surprise than physical force). 3. If you can hear thunder, you can get struck quite easily. 4. A few drops of rain increase the chances of being struck by several orders of magnitude. The atmosphere is far more conductive and therefor danger skyrockets. 5. Lightning will strike the most out-of-way/odd places. I've watched it blitz trees in a deep valley over and over again without hitting the peaks once. There is no predicting what is likely to get struck. 6. In an instable environment, any cloud that is rising rapidly is extremely suspect. I once was watching a storm that was cranking away about 10 miles off. A small cumulus tower went up next to me, but didn't look like much. 30 seconds later it discharged only about 1/4 mile away. 7. Some wikipedia entries and other sources state lightning is uncommon over water and the open ocean. This is completely untrue - there is a lot of it. If you are boating and see a squall, be prepared to book it out of there as a boat is a highly dangerous place to be during a storm. 8. A fantastic shot of the close-range effects of lightning is 00:01:15 into this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7K3m2zHEhs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7K3m2zHEhs What you'll notice about that shot is the effect it has and how very clear it is, along with how quiet it is at close range. The sparks off the metal roof, the movement of the actual channel, even the rate at which it discharges is apparent. Probably one of the best shots so far (though I welcome others!) Stay safe.

kposehn 13y ago
This is also an excellent clip showing stepped leaders in extremely slow-motion (the electrical leaders that lead to lightning strikes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLWIBrweSU8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLWIBrweSU8
pge 13y ago

Zedronar 13y ago

Scumbag wizard.

mindcrime 13y ago

Interesting that he had just moved to North Carolina. Strangely enough, NC is very high up (#4) on the list of "most dangerous states for lighting accidents"[1]. I'm not not sure exactly what it is about NC that makes us so prone to lightning related accidents, but we sure do have a lot of them. I'd always speculated that it was something to do with geography / climate... just the right sort of semi-tropical climate to have lots of severe late-afternoon summertime thunderstorms or something. But when you look at the top 10 list, they seem to be fairly spread out. South, Southeast, Midwest, Southwest and Northeast all represented. The only conspicuous absence, to me, is the Pacific Northwest. Edit: Did some more exploring... this graphic[2] makes it more apparent that there may be a geographic / climatic correlation. Southern states, Eastern states and Southwestern states seem to be particularly prone to lighting strikes and damage, with the Midwest, West and Pacific Northwest seemingly safer. But, when you weight by population, the pattern seems much more muddled and nonsensical. Hmm... [1]: http://weather.about.com/od/thunderstormsandlightning/tp/lightningstates.htm http://weather.about.com/od/thunderstormsandlightning/tp/lig... [2]: http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_lls/fatalities_us.html http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_lls/fatalities_us.html

kposehn 13y ago
North Carolina is on the eastern ass-end of a common circulation pattern of cold fronts. They get a lot of the big squall-line fronts with heavy/torrential downpours in storm cells, while the mountains act as an extra lifting mechanism. With that combo, you get much more lightning overall. This may account for the high death rate. The Pacific Northwest has much fewer thunderstorms where population is concentrated. Go east of the cascades and there are far more storms, but far fewer people.
- chrisbennet 13y ago
  Or they could just have a lot of sinners... ;-)
- brightsize 13y ago
  Not really. I've lived in Spokane for the past ten years and we almost never get thunderstorms here. I can remember one big one a couple of years ago where I thought we were going to get a tornado (something else that never happens here), but no such luck. That was the only storm excitement in forever. In general it's a fairly hot/dry place in the summer, and I don't think we get that magic combo of heat and humidity needed to cook up a good storm.

eaurouge 13y ago

No one has mentioned the use of a lightning rod on the roof to provide an alternate path. Does anyone know how effective these are in practice?

mmagin 13y ago
My understanding of lightning rods is that they help more in that they help dissipate charges from the surrounding air, preventing a strike, rather than actually taking the strike, in most cases. Though, in such case lightning struck the building, it's much more likely it would go through the lightning protection system if properly installed.
- btilly 13y ago
  My understanding of lightning rods is that they help more in that they help dissipate charges from the surrounding air, preventing a strike, rather than actually taking the strike, in most cases. Your understanding is incorrect. See, for example http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/lightning/lightning_faq.htm http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/lightning/lightning_faq.ht..., for evidence that lightning rods increase the odds of being struck by lightning and decrease the damage if you are.
  - eaurouge 13y ago
    From your link: Lightning rods will not prevent your building from being struck. They actually INCREASE it by making your house TALLER. The purpose of the lightning rod is to direct the current from the lightning to the ground along a preferred path instead of to the house. However, this works only if the rod is connected to the ground with heavy gauge wire. It's a bit more complex than that. From my quick browse on the Internet, it seems there's a slight increase in odds caused by the increase in height. But if the rod can actively and effectively dissipate the electric field then that should mitigate the increase in odds (and then some) caused by the added height. Finally, if well constructed, a lightning rod will reduce the amount of damage caused.
    - 13y ago

quannabe 13y ago

"I mean, my grandmother was struck by lightning twice" Wait, what?

sc00ter 13y ago

From his comments defending not visiting ER given a recent unrelated health issue: The hospital billed $11,000 for a cat scan; the insurance paid 6k.' Seriously, if you need a an elective scan and it's going to cost you more than a couple of grand after insurance: take a vacation, fly first class, stay in a 5 star hotel, get seen privately in a first class facility, have a relaxing rejuvenating break, and come home with change. Cost of a full-body CT scan in Europe?: < $1000.[1] [1] http://www.privatehealth.co.uk/private-healthcare-services/diagnostic-imaging/ct-scans/ct-scan-prices/ http://www.privatehealth.co.uk/private-healthcare-services/d... Other parts of Europe (and no doubt elsewhere outside the US) will be much cheaper still.

lostlogin 13y ago
Cost of full body CT scan may be greater than that - it would likely put you in Hiroshima-survivor radiation dose range. Edit: did some reading. The risk is surprisingly low. For a 45 year old a single whole body scan has a mortality risk of 0.08%, and if the same person had one annually thereafter till 75, its a 1.9% lifetime risk. David, Brennee and Ellison in Radiology, 2004.

merraksh 13y ago

From one top comment: Buildings with rods didn't get struck; buildings without, did. And the conflict was finally settled, once and for all, when a church somewhere in Spain was struck by lightning, setting off explosives that were stored underneath, leveling the town and killing most of the people in it. I couldn't find references to this. Does anyone know any?

Aardwolf 13y ago
I also tried to search for one and also couldn't find one. However, my searching brought me to this rather interesting article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_artificial_non-nuclear_explosions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_artificial_...
- merraksh 13y ago
  I saw this link and didn't bother to check it, but I think you hit the jackpot: Palace of the Grand Master Explosion, in Rhodes On 4 April 1856, the Ottomans had storaged a large amount of gunpowder in the palace and the adjacent church, which were also full of people. In that time, it was considered that the ringing of bells could prevent the formation of storms. Unfortunately, a lightning hit the gunpowder, triggering a huge blast that killed 4,000 people. Thanks.

biot 13y ago

There's a great comment on lightning and religion: http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/05/i-was-struck-by-lightning-yesterday-and-boy-am-i-sore/?comments=1&post=24552037#comment-24552037 http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/05/i-was-struck-by-light...

rusbra 13y ago

Sounds like crazyness to me

BrotherErryn 13y ago

Boy, that takes me back to the two times I was struck. 15 the first time, my legs didn't work for about 15 minutes. Second time I only know about because witnesses told me (it's a black space in my memory).

tn13 13y ago

He aint got no superpowers ?

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

raymondduke 13y ago

I think the most surprising thing about this was that I learned people still use IRC.

sdfjkl 13y ago
About 600k users every day, and that's only the public networks. More statistics: http://irc.netsplit.de/networks/summary.php http://irc.netsplit.de/networks/summary.php For developers working in teams, there is no better way to communicate as a group. Text chat has a scroll back, you can opt to participate in the conversation or just lurk, check it on your own time but are never interrupted in your focus by it (unless you set it up that way).

fakeer 13y ago

Guys, I am often caught in the rain(in Bangalore it's raining these days - and I've, seeing B'lore traffic, decided to rely on public transport) as I have to walk a lot, from drop points - and I keep walking, reaching home sometimes partially soaked and sometimes fully. So, should I just stop it? I mean I feel good getting soaked in the rain from time to time. And when do I know, if there's a way, that 'okay, no fooling around in rains today - looks like it's bad today'? Or I should just avoid altogether? Also, as the OP has mentioned he was in a room so I am sure it was well insulated, so that means standing in the shop sheds is just gonna save me from the rain and not the lighting, right? What about standing beneath dense and big trees? And I wear a leather shoe or sports shoe - both with plastic/fiber/rubber soles(I'm not sure) - so they are gonna help? Umbrella? Cars, with all those metals around must be most unsafe then?

honzzz 13y ago
You're safe in a car because the lightning will travel around the surface of the vehicle and then go to ground.This occurs because the vehicle acts like a Faraday cage. http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/lightning8.htm http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/li...
GFischer 13y ago
I've walked in the rain for at least a decade (in Uruguay) and so have most of my classmates and friends, and never even heard of someone getting struck by lightning. The odds are still pretty low (they vary according to Google, but the lowest estimate is 1 in 3000 in your lifetime, with the highest being 1 in 500.000). I'd be a lot more worried about cancer (1 in 6 chances).

rttlesnke 13y ago

This page has a lot of information about lightning: http://sciencebasedlife.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/the-science-and-myths-behind-lightning-strikes/ http://sciencebasedlife.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/the-science...

ndesaulniers 13y ago

The image at the top of the article is Derek Rigg's album art for Iron Maiden's 1985 Live After Death live album. It is one of my favorite album arts. It is the desktop wallpaper on most of my computers. It's so intricate, I could stare at it all day and notice new things hidden in the image. You can see the rest of his work for Iron Maiden here: http://derek.server311.com/ http://derek.server311.com/

nnq 13y ago

> I mean, my grandmother was struck by lightning twice—how bad can it be? ...uhm ...can anyone here compute the probability of 2 people in one family being struck by lighting in this timerange/pattern.

michael_dorfman 13y ago
I worked in an IT department of about 20, of which two employees had each been hit twice.
dclowd9901 13y ago
After reading through this thread, you'd think it was commonplace. My guess is that people have bastardized the concept of "being struck by lightning," in that they weren't struck, just close to a strike.

kybernetyk 13y ago

I don't understand why he didn't go to the hospital. You might feel fine but your heart might have got a little disturbed - and that can be enough to cause serious complications.