# Surviving a lightning strike
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-lightning-strike/95092
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 25, 2001, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-lightning-strike/95092 "2001-11-25T00:52:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Sequent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sequent)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2001, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-lightning-strike/95092/1 "2001-11-25T00:52:34Z")
I’m sure it would depend on a wide array of factors, but statistically speaking, how many people who get hit by lightning live to tell the tale?
And is there any truth to the strange tales some of them tell? I’ve seen the light-bulb-in-the-mouth thing–I’m sure it could be a trick–but could anything like that actually happen? Are there any phenonmena like this that have actually been studied?
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### Author:  [@Stupendous\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stupendous_man)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2001, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-lightning-strike/95092/2 "2001-11-25T17:25:20Z")
I’m not sure of statistics, but I do know for sure that the lightbulb in the mouth is definately a trick.
Anything that you read or hear that seems a little suspicious to your reasoning probably is too. What other things have you heard?
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2001, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-lightning-strike/95092/3 "2001-11-25T17:34:32Z")
I know two people who have each been hit by lightning twice (and lived, obviously). What are the odds of that, I wonder? Both are in the UK. One is notoriously unlucky, and has articles written about him. He was once been transported in an ambulance and it crashed.
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### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2001, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-lightning-strike/95092/4 "2001-11-25T19:23:00Z")
There are a lot of lightning statistics here:
[http://www.crh.noaa.gov/pub/ltg/crh\_ltg\_stats\_usa.html](http://www.crh.noaa.gov/pub/ltg/crh_ltg_stats_usa.html)
It lists fatalities, injuries, and damage reports for 1959 to 1994.
The only thing that really shocked me (pardon the pun) was that there are on average 22 MILLION cloud to ground strikes in the US per year. I’m surprised the incidences of death and injury aren’t much higher than they are.
I’m not sure what strange tales you are talking about, but lightning is one of those things that has traditionally been fairly poorly understood, and like all things that are poorly understood, you get a lot of strange tales associated with it. Mostly it’s all about as scientific as the “flux capacitor” in Back to the Future (which was also lightning powered, if you will recall). There are some weird things that happen to people who get struck by lightning. Some of them feel pain that doctors can’t explain, and when doctor’s can’t explain things they tend to send you to a shrink. I guess they still feel the pain, but at least are happier about it.
The light bulb in the mouth type thing, and being magnetically charged or whatever else along those lines, is all bunk. A lightning strike is really just a very, very large bug zapper. When it’s over, it’s over. There is no “residual charge” worth speaking of. The light bulb one is particularly silly. Light bulbs have to be very carefully designed. Too little current and you don’t get any usable light. Too much current and you get a very bright light for a very short amount of time, then nothing afterwards (the light bulb goes “POP”). Then you have to consider where the “battery” is in the human body that stores the energy, and how exactly does it discharge through human tissues at exactly the right amount of current to make light. Also, consider that this is more than enough current to be incredibly painful to human tissues. The amount of current that you could tolerate would not be enough to light the bulb.
Lightning strikes cause severe tissue damage and often death. There was a good example on television recently. A guy was fishing when he got struck. The carbon fibers of the fishing pole were blown apart (the resin that holds them together was melted) so that it wasn’t even recognizable as a fishing pole. His leg was so burnt that he spent months in the hospital recovering. He was lucky to have survived, and lucky that he did not lose his leg. There was of course no mention of him being able to light bulbs with his mere presence, and all of the electronic medical equipment hooked up to him did not seem to be suffering any effects.
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### Author:  [@JRootabega](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRootabega)
#### Post date: [November 26, 2001, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-lightning-strike/95092/5 "2001-11-26T00:52:52Z")
Don’t you dare be forgettin’ no Mr. Fusion or pluTOnium rods now!
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [November 26, 2001, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-lightning-strike/95092/6 "2001-11-26T00:59:56Z")
Previous studies have identified patterns associated with lightning fatalities. For example, approximately 30% of persons struck by lightning die, and 74% of lightning strike survivors have permanent disabilities.
From [http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/prevguid/m0052833/m0052833.asp](http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/prevguid/m0052833/m0052833.asp)
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [November 26, 2001, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-lightning-strike/95092/7 "2001-11-26T01:01:29Z")
Since those previous figures add up to 104%, I guess they must class death as the ultimate permanent disability.
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### Author:  [@Soul\_of\_the\_Machine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_of_the_Machine)
#### Post date: [November 26, 2001, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-lightning-strike/95092/8 "2001-11-26T01:21:03Z")
The show on Discovery channel this week gave odds of survival of 80-90%. If it’s a “direct” hit, the odds go down to 30%, but apparently only 1 in 10 is considered “direct”.
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### Author:  [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)
#### Post date: [November 26, 2001, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-lightning-strike/95092/9 "2001-11-26T06:14:57Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Since those previous figures add up to 104%, I guess they must class death as the ultimate permanent disability.
Uhmmm.
74% of lightning strike **survivors** have permanent disabilities.
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [November 26, 2001, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-a-lightning-strike/95092/10 "2001-11-26T06:18:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by iamthewalrus(:3= \*
> \*\*
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > Since those previous figures add up to 104%, I guess they must class death as the ultimate permanent disability.
>
> Uhmmm.
>
> 74% of lightning strike **survivors** have permanent disabilities. \*\*
So you’re saying the survivors **aren’t** dead. That must be why they don’t bury them after the plane crash.