What Getting Struck By Lightning Can Do To Survivors

It's an old cliché. When the odds are against something, people will often say they have 'better chances of getting struck by lightning'. The odds are not as far out as you might think, however, these lightning survivors will tell you.

1 in 300,000

As it turns out, the odds of getting struck by lightning every year are 1 in 300,000. Considering the odds of getting eaten by a shark are one in 3.7 million, and the odds of winning the Powerball Lottery jackpot are one in 292 million, the odds of getting struck by lightning don't seem all that bad.

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You Would Probably Survive

If you are worried that the odds are lower than you thought for this kind of shock, fear not. Some 90 percent of people struck by lightning will survive the jolt. Those are actually pretty good odds.

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You'll Feel the Burn

Those who do get struck might be grateful to survive, but they can tell you one thing for sure: it hurts. A bolt of lightning causes the air surrounding it to heat up to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Considering your oven probably only goes up to 500 at most, that is a terrifying thought. Lightning is actually five times hotter than the sun, if you can wrap your brain around that thought.

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Ouch

Aside from the intense heat, if you got struck by lightning, you will feel like you were hit by a truck. Or 100 trucks. Simultaneously. A lightning bolt can contain up to 1 billion volts of electricity, which packs quite a wallop.

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Scars Are Likely

Those who are struck by lightning rarely get away unscathed, though. In fact, scars are quite common. The scars on an expanse of skin that has been struck by lightning are interesting-- not unlike a branching tree, or a frost spreading across a window. Some might even say that they can be beautiful.

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Damage to Organs

Scarring isn't the only problem that lightning can cause. Since your body runs on electrical impulses that come from your brain, the huge jolt of electricity can short-circuit it. This can cause problems with your heart, lungs, and entire nervous system, eyes, and may have lasting effects. People who get struck from lightning often suffer from seizures, brain injuries, spinal cord damage, blindness or can go into cardiac arrest.

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Killing the Sex Drive

In men, lightning can have another unpleasant side effect for survivors. It can render a man sterile, or kill his sex drive altogether.

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Amazing Healing Powers

On the flip side, in very rare instances, people have reported that an encounter with lightning unexpectedly healed them somehow. There have been cases in which people struck by lightning claim they were literally jolted out of a depression, regained their ability to hear or see, or have found that their sex drive increased.

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Naturally, however, the unpredictable results are not worth the risk, so it’s best to just seek shelter from any storms.

Source: Bored Panda