A 6-year-old girl died on Saturday evening in Mayenne after a tree branch fell on her. It would have been caused by violent thunderstorms. France suffers from numerous thunderstorms which arouse the fear of lightning … Not necessarily false, because each year, in France, more than a hundred people who brave the elements are struck by lightning.
The girl was walking in a municipal park with her parents at the time of the tragedy. “She was held by the hand by her mother when a branch 40 cm in diameter was torn off and caused a head trauma by falling,” the sub-prefecture told France Info.
The fight against lightning and thunderstorms is uneven and dangerous: 10% of those struck down die and the majority of survivors have permanent and disabling consequences. Indeed, in addition to a psychological shock that the survivors describe as out of the ordinary, electrification, this is how the passage of current through the body is called, even if most of it passes on the surface. in the form of a bypass arc, the electricity that remains is enough to cause heart problems – these are basically arrhythmias, because the heart is a battery – impaired consciousness and memory, or just plain severe internal burns. The struck down, if he is not unconscious, suffers from his limbs, even from paralysis which fades quite quickly. Another dangerous peculiarity: it is not uncommon for lightning to project the body violently, adding to the electricity the brutality of the fall. The consequence is sometimes also that of the fall of a branch when one takes shelter wrongly under a tree. Finally, it must be repeated, to be struck down – and popular language has understood it well – is to become different and expose yourself to sleep and memory disorders, symptoms that are similar to a form of reactive depression. .
What to do in front of someone struck down?
Nothing more than emergency measures in the face of loss of consciousness. However, if the victim assures to have no problem, it is necessary to insist that all struck down be hospitalized for a complete assessment, because most of the internal injuries, especially minimal, are not visible immediately.
The best advice is prevention.
It is important to know that in our country lightning strikes usually occur:
- In the open air, away from residential areas;
- During sports or leisure activities, and more rarely, during professional activities such as agriculture and construction;
- During the two stormiest months of the year, July and August, which are unfortunately those of the holidays;
- And with a predilection in the areas which receive the most impact on the ground, that is to say to the south of a line connecting Bordeaux and Strasbourg.
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