Secondary Missile Injury From Lightning Strike

Abstract

Abstract:A 48 year-old-female was struck dead by lightning on the 24 th October 2010 in Pretoria South Africa. The cause of death was due to direct lightning strike. Examination showed secondary missile injury on her legs. This secondary missile (shrapnel) injury was caused by the lightning striking the concrete pavement next to her. Small pieces of concrete were located embedded within the shrapnel wounds. This case report represents the first documented case of secondary missile formation (shrapnel injury) due to lightning strike in the literature.

Brief communication "A multi-disciplinary approach to a side-flash lightning incident to human beings in the Basque Country"

“…In this last case, the injuries would have been much more serious because they would have affected internal organs. Moreover, the fact of suffering a discharge of the side-flash type suggests that the injuries suffered should be less severe than in the case of a direct strike, because a proportion of the energy has already dissipated in the object first struck, as it is explained by Blumenthal (2012a).…”

“…Then the lightning current flowed over the surface of the dead tree, because it was the wettest part of it, and then an electric arc was produced between the bark and the man's shoulder. Therefore, we now consider the six different mechanisms by which lightning injures a victim (Blumenthal, 2012a): directly, touch potential, side flash, step potential, upward streamers and the electroblast effect. The mechanism of lightning injury in this case is assumed to be a side flash due to the fact that the lightning discharge stroke first entered the tree and then it jumped to the bodies.…”

Investigating the risk of lightning’s pressure blast wave

“…Lightning strikes have even been known to cause shrapnel injury-one victim had multiple small fragments of shattered concrete pavement embedded in her skin. 16 The human body is paradoxically both very robust and very fragile. Humans can survive relatively high blast overpressures without experiencing blast-related pathologies.…”

Lightning Related Human Risks and Risk Management

“…A direct lightning strike may ignite fires, trigger explosions, cause structural fires, detachment or fragmentation of materials that either fall to injure those below or act as shrapnel [5,17,18], cause utility outages, and other economic losses. Indirectly, lightning current can permanently or temporarily damage electrical, electronic and communication equipment by entering a building through plumbing and service lines such as power, communication, and cable TV.…”