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Lightning Struck Her Home. Then Her Brain Implant Stopped Working. (nytimes.com)
Can lightning have an impact on people with electrodes implanted in their brains? A new study shares a case study. From a report: Lightning had struck the building. But the appliances were not the only things affected. After about an hour, the woman, who had had the electrodes put in five years before to help with debilitating muscle spasms in her neck, noticed her symptoms coming back. When she went to see her doctors the next day, they found that the pacemaker-like stimulator that powered the electrodes had switched itself off in response to the lightning strike.
In a study describing these events published Tuesday in the Journal of Neurosurgery, her doctors suggest that physicians and medical device companies add lightning strikes to the list of things patients with electrodes implanted in their brains should watch out for. It may sound futuristic, but deep brain stimulation, or D.B.S., has a fairly long history. Surgeons operating on epileptic patients in the 1930s and 1940s found that removing small portions of the brain could quiet seizures. Later, researchers found that stimulating certain brain areas, instead of cutting them out, could quell the involuntary movements characteristic of Parkinson's and other disorders.
In a study describing these events published Tuesday in the Journal of Neurosurgery, her doctors suggest that physicians and medical device companies add lightning strikes to the list of things patients with electrodes implanted in their brains should watch out for. It may sound futuristic, but deep brain stimulation, or D.B.S., has a fairly long history. Surgeons operating on epileptic patients in the 1930s and 1940s found that removing small portions of the brain could quiet seizures. Later, researchers found that stimulating certain brain areas, instead of cutting them out, could quell the involuntary movements characteristic of Parkinson's and other disorders.
this story isnt about facebook so i dont know why its on slashdot
So her home was struck by lightning, and it fried everything, even some highly advance stuff implanted in her body. Do people not realize how much power in in a bolt of lightning? The woman is probably lucky her house didn't burn down, i know that homes have lightning rods and what not, but I've see some massive damage to homes that are struck.
Years ago I had a talking Stitch doll (from Lilo and Sititch) that you could "talk" to and it would respond to simple questions. You could turn it on by pressing a leaf switch in his ear or it would listen for voice commands directed to him. Very cool, geeky toy, left it on the shelf and the batteries died and he stopped talking.
Until one night, had a bad thunderstorm and a lightning strike very close to the house (less than a second between lightning flash and thunder) lights flickered, static on the TV...
Almost immediately after, Stitch, on the shelf, said "I'm having a pretty good day".
Cue twilight zone music.
Have physicians and medical device companies been recommending people in general seek out lightning strikes?