Health & Medicine
Teen Struck by Lightning at Summer Camp: Safety Tips to Prevent Environmental Hazard
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Sep 11, 2013 11:26 AM EDT
An Ohio boy's life drastically change when he was hit by a lightning bolt at summer camp and left brain damaged, according to a statement that his parents made Tuesday.
At the Goldman Union Camp Institute on the Northwestside, 12-year-old Ethan Kadish was allegedly teaching students how to play Frisbee when an explosive gear of lightning hit him near an athletic field.
"No one saw the lightning, but it made an incredibly loud crack. Later we found a dead tree about 30-40 yards from the field, so it could have bounced off the tree," Camp Director and Rabbi Mark Covitz said, via USA Today.
Camp staffers performed CPR on Ethan after he was hit, who was then sent to the Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health, soon after which doctors induced a coma and he was put on a ventilator. He was then flown to Cincinnati's Children's Hospital Medical Center to be near his family.
Still in critical condition after 10 weeks of treatment and rehabilitation, he cannot speak or move without help.
National Geographic tells us that the average lighting stroke has a peak electrical current of 30,000 amps. However, in extreme cases, a lightning discharge can reach 10 times that. In fact, the electricity flowing within a lightning bolt can actually reach up to 200 million volts--enough energy to kill someone on instant contact.
Lightning strikes may not be as uncommon as you think. Make sure you follow safety tips via the Federal Emergency Management Agency to know what's best in order to prevent this environmental hazard.
See Now:
NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone
TagsHealth ©2024 ScienceWorldReport.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The window to the world of science news.
More on SCIENCEwr
First Posted: Sep 11, 2013 11:26 AM EDT
An Ohio boy's life drastically change when he was hit by a lightning bolt at summer camp and left brain damaged, according to a statement that his parents made Tuesday.
At the Goldman Union Camp Institute on the Northwestside, 12-year-old Ethan Kadish was allegedly teaching students how to play Frisbee when an explosive gear of lightning hit him near an athletic field.
"No one saw the lightning, but it made an incredibly loud crack. Later we found a dead tree about 30-40 yards from the field, so it could have bounced off the tree," Camp Director and Rabbi Mark Covitz said, via USA Today.
Camp staffers performed CPR on Ethan after he was hit, who was then sent to the Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health, soon after which doctors induced a coma and he was put on a ventilator. He was then flown to Cincinnati's Children's Hospital Medical Center to be near his family.
Still in critical condition after 10 weeks of treatment and rehabilitation, he cannot speak or move without help.
National Geographic tells us that the average lighting stroke has a peak electrical current of 30,000 amps. However, in extreme cases, a lightning discharge can reach 10 times that. In fact, the electricity flowing within a lightning bolt can actually reach up to 200 million volts--enough energy to kill someone on instant contact.
Lightning strikes may not be as uncommon as you think. Make sure you follow safety tips via the Federal Emergency Management Agency to know what's best in order to prevent this environmental hazard.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone