Title ideas: How Not to Get Lit UP, Flash Facts and the
People Who Lived Them, Electrifying Tales, Shock Therapies
Dan, who is the owner of Bayfield’s Lightning Bolt Chiropractic,
was moving pretty fast when, twenty feet from his car, lightning crackled through
the sky and struck a nearby telephone pole. The bolt went down into the ground
and traveled through the earth another fifteen feet, where it surged up, entering
Dan’s left hand. In less than a second, the bolt shot through Dan’s left arm
and exited through his right foot, leaving the lingering sensation of a burning
bbq briquette in the bottom of his foot. Twenty years later he still has that
burning sensation. It never goes away. (Picture of Dan last week in the spot
where he was struck pointing at the lightning pole).
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| Photo by Donna Stewart |
Aside from the burning sensation in his foot and feeling
like he’d been cold-cocked by Thor’s hammer, at first he thought he was more or
less alright. He went to work the next day happily cracking grateful patients
back into shape. But the day after that? He couldn’t even get out of bed. An
MRI revealed that he’d “cooked” his lower vertebrae. So began a long journey of
recovery that he reflects on with gratitude. He credits the experience not only
with impressing upon him the preciousness of life, but with a heightened
intuition that has greatly enhanced his abilities as a chiropractor (hence the
business name Lightning Bolt Chiropractic). (Picture of Dan with Dog, Thunder)
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| Photo by Donna Stewart |
Dan was lucky on several fronts. Most obviously, a lightning
strike can kill you and Dan survived. But lesser known is that 90 percent of
people struck by lightning do survive.
But that doesn’t make them alright. Generating more heat
than the surface of the sun in less than a second causes a shock wave we
generally experience as thunder, but anyone standing within 30 feet of the
actual strike could experience the equivalent blast of a 5 kg TNT bomb that can
literally blow your socks off. The sudden intense rise in temperature can
vaporize your sweat instantly, resulting in steam that can blow off your shoes,
your socks and everything else.
Closer proximity or an actual strike can cause spinal cord injury
(like Dan), severe neurological problems, burned retina, or third degree burns
caused by the immediate and intense heating of any metal on your body.
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| Photo by Jonathan Bowers |
The blast can scramble the body’s signals, stopping the
function of the heart, lungs, or any combination of the functioning of your organic
matter. This might be a good time to mention that a person struck by lightning
will not carry an electrical charge after the hit, so you can, should, and
please do, perform CPR immediately if someone near you is struck by lightning
and lies unconscious and not breathing. That is, if you know how to perform
CPR. Not all strikes are equal, however.
Mother of 3, Kristi Murphy was standing on some rocks with four
friends beside the Slate River in Gunnison, Colorado, when lightning hit the
other bank. Murphy thinks she was
knocked to the ground but truly doesn't remember. "I felt a
tingling sensation in my body just before lightning struck the opposite
bank." Four of the five people complained of symptoms like
tingling sensations, nausea, and concussion symptoms like headaches that lasted
for a few days after.
Murphy said that she not only had headaches, but a peculiar
“buzzing” sensation in half of her body, “The tingling feeling stayed on one
side of my face and body for the next two days.”
Since later symptoms seemed relatively minor, no one in
Murphy’s group sought medical attention, though they all wondered if they
should. Most people don’t know whether to head for the ER after being struck,
especially if their symptoms at first seem mild. But experts highly recommend
getting checked out. Lightning strikes can cause significant damage to the
brain, spine and other internal organs that might not be immediately apparent. Murphy
was one of the lucky ones and her symptoms cleared up.
(Pic of Main Trail sign for Horse Gulch)
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| Photo by Donna Stewart...yes, that's a dog butt. |
But not everybody makes out like Kristi Murphy and the good
Dr. Dan. Our beloved Stacy’s Loop trail in the Horse Gulch Trail System is a
living memorial to mountain biker, Stacy Thomas, a young woman who’d attended
Fort Lewis in 1997. It was a late August afternoon and she was mountain biking
with two friends on Telegraph Trail. The three were riding about 15 feet apart,
with Stacy in the middle, when she was struck by a lightning bolt. They’d started
out under blue skies, but Emergency Management Director Butch Knowlton, who was
among the first on the scene that day, said that, “it was a typical broken day,
like any other summer day in Durango, meaning there were scattered thunder
showers.” (Pic of Trail map highlighting Stacy’s Loop and Telegraph Trail where
she was struck)
Knowlton remembers, “We recognized immediately that Stacy
was critical and did everything we could to revive her.” Knowlton called in a
helicopter for immediate transport, but to no avail. Stacy was gone. Today, a
host of bikers, hikers, joggers and even horses enjoy the loop daily. (Pic
array of Stacy’s living memorial with bikers, horses, jogger with dog and
Spring Lupine)
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| Horses grazing along Stacy's Trail, photo by Donna Stewart |
As sweet as that is and as much as we all love Stacy’s loop,
you’re probably wondering how to keep that story from becoming any part of your
own.
Well that gets complicated. Here’s the thing, according to
Knowlton, “Lightning is absolutely impossible to predict. You can stay indoors all
your life, but even that is no guarantee you won’t be struck.”
It’s pretty rare, but there are plenty of stories about
people being struck by lightning that came in through windows, electrical
outlets or even plumbing. Inside a building or car is your best bet, but who
wants to live trembling behind a curtain?
Ready to live life anyway? Here are some steps you can take
to minimize your exposure. If you’re inside, stay away from windows, electrical
outlets, tubs, faucets and other plumbing during a storm. Check the weather
before you head to the wild. Generally, in Durango, the earlier the better,
especially during the June/July monsoon season. If you get caught “out there”
stay away from water, wire fencing (or wire of any kind), and exposed high
points. Do not shelter under trees, boulders or cliffs, while at the same time,
don’t be the tallest thing out there. If you’re in a group, spread out so if
someone gets struck someone else can perform CPR and/or run for help. If you
can safely keep moving out of harm’s way, keep moving til you can reach a metal
topped car or a building. If you have to stay put, get low to the ground with
the least contact to the earth as possible (lightning squat method). There are
no studies showing that really helps, but it’s worth a try if it’s all you got.
Ron Corkish, President and Mission Coordinator for La Plata
County Search and Rescue told me, “Remember the fundamentals of Know Before You
Go: If in doubt, don’t go. Going out is an option. Coming home isn’t.” For more
information visit: https://www.fs.fed.us/visit/know-before-you-go/lightning
Donna Stewart is a freelance writer and the award-winning author
of Yoga Mama’s Buddha Sandals: Mayans,
Zapatistas and Silly Little White Girls. She’s chocked full of character and cautionary tales.
