Survivors of lightning strikes may suffer from movement disorders and lifelong neurological damage cataracts, injuries to their optic nerves and other eye injuries and damage to the inner ear that can lead to vertigo, tinnitus, paralysis of facial nerves and deafness. Having such drastic effects on the body can cause lasting harm. Additionally, a lightning strike can cause the respiratory system to come to a halt. This causes the blood to back up, increase pressure in the blood vessels and push blood into the lung’s air sacs - essentially, filling the lungs with fluid. For example, a heart that fails to pump regularly is unable to pump the blood it receives from the lungs. Lightning strikes behind Coors Field during a rain delay before a baseball game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Colorado Rockies on Jin Denver, Colorado.īecause of lightning’s disruption of the nervous and cardiovascular systems, it has a ripple effect on the rest of the body, like the respiratory system. Above all, a lightning strike can cause the heart to stop, which is often the case with direct lightning strikes.
Heart muscles may also be bruised and the aorta, the body’s largest artery, may be injured. Lightning’s electrical jolt may cause the heart to beat more quickly or more slowly than it should, compromising the amount of blood flowing through the body. When lightning strikes and reaches the nervous system, it can directly damage nerve cells, cause temporary paralysis and cause arteries and vessels in the brain to burst.Įlectricity from lightning can also cause extreme damage to the cardiovascular system, the system that includes the heart and blood vessels. It is this movement of electrical signals that allows information to move throughout your nervous system, the system that involves your brain and the neural pathways woven throughout your body (it basically tells your body what to do). The body is naturally awash in electricity, which is created when charges pass through cell membranes. (John Sleezer/Kansas City Star / Tribune News Service / Getty Images)Īpart from lightning’s thermal properties, it can also damage the human body by way of its electrical properties.
Lightning strikes near Kansas City, Missouri.
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