The mother was brought in a confused state, and had left hemiparesis, filigree burns, and a macular burn of the left retina. She recovered completely, but developed a posterior capsular cataract of the left eye 5 months later. Her 1 year old child was brought dead to the hospital. The gold chain around his neck was deeply embedded into the muscles and had a deep lacerated wound around the neck exposing the muscles. In this report, two of the three victims of the lightning strike suffered from deep full thickness burns at the site of the metal chains they were wearing, embedding the chains deep into the tissues.
Visceral perforation following lightning strike is extremely rare.
Lightning usually causes death by injuring the medullary centers of the brain, leading to cardiac asystole or respiratory arrest. Prompt life support measures contribute to successful resuscitation in many patients. Patients struck by lightning frequently have cardiac asystole which responds to a manual blow to the chest or spontaneously resolves after several minutes of cardiac massage and mouth to mouth resuscitation. Attention should be paid to possible fractures and spinal cord injuries incurred at the time of the accident. Hospital management includes aggressive treatment of hypovolemic shock.