Doctors warn public about electronic devices after man hurt by bolt in Burnaby
Gerry Bellett
Sun
iPod with ear buds
Note to self: Remove iPod earphones when sheltering from a thunderstorm. And oh, don’t be talking on that mobile phone while there’s thunder and lightning about.
What happened to a 37-year-old jogger caught in a thunderstorm in a Burnaby park in June 2005 explains why.
He was hit by lightning, which is bad enough, but unfortunately he was standing under a tree listening to music on his iPod, according to an account published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.
His injuries were far worse than they might have been had he not been so attached to his iPod, says Vancouver General Hospital radiologist Dr. Eric Heffernan.
“Most people hit by lightning get away with minor burns. It’s because skin is highly resistant and stops electricity from entering the body. It’s called the flash-over effect, although it can stop your heart and kill you, as between five to 10 per cent of people struck by lightning die each year,” Heffernan said Wednesday.
“But in this case, the patient had earphones on and had been sweating from jogging so this was a case of disrupted flash-over. The earphones transmitted the electrical current into his head. It’s the first time we’ve had a recorded case of such an incident involving a person wearing headphones and we think the public should be warned,” Heffernan said.
Heffernan said it isn’t just iPods that pose a risk but any music player or similar device with headphones — even cellphones — can cause similar injuries if they are being used by someone hit by lightning.
The article in the medical journal was written by Heffernan and his colleagues in Vancouver General’s radiology department, Dr. Peter Munk and Dr. Luck Louis.
They could find only one other account of someone being hit by lightning while wearing an iPod.
“There was someone in Colorado that was hit, but this only resulted in minor burns and it wasn’t a recorded case,” Heffernan said.
The injuries suffered by the unidentified Lower Mainland jogger were significant.
He was brought into the emergency department and was sent to radiology for a scan that disclosed multiple injuries to his head. The lightning strike had left burns to his chest, neck and face with the burns tracing the position of the earphones.
The patient’s eardrums were ruptured and tiny bones in his middle ears dislocated. His jawbone was broken in four places and both jaws were dislocated, likely due to his jaw muscles contracting violently from electrical shock.
The man’s hearing has been significantly reduced. He has lost half of his hearing and can’t hear high-frequency sounds even with hearing aids.
But he still goes jogging, according to Heffernan, and he’s got another iPod to replace the one that was fried.
“I think he leaves it at home now when he’s jogging,” he said.
Heffernan, who doesn’t jog and says he wouldn’t go out of doors in thunderstorms with or without an iPod, has some advice for those who do.
“If you’re caught in a thunderstorm, make sure your iPod isn’t in contact with your skin and remove the earphones from your ear,” he said.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007