Different Presentations of Victims of Lightning During Thunderstorm

Thunderstorms are classic weather events. Huge electrical forces are involved, producing millions of amperes and phenomenal voltages within microseconds of time. Hundreds of deaths occur each year from atmospheric lightening stroke, especially in tropical countries. Understanding lightning related casualties is more than just reporting numbers of deaths. As death takes place immediately, no signs of vital reaction are to be expected in connection with bizarre presentations of victims and torn clothing further arouse suspicions of foul play and sometime person at a considerable distance from the spot of lightning, is killed with no mark of injury due to ‘return shock’ i.e. discharge of charged cloud induced

electricity from his own body. More people are struck by lightning in hilly states blessed with heavy rains than in all other states on average both indoor and open fields. This article reveals a series of such cases brought to the Government Medical College, Haldwani.