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Woman walking dog hit by lightning at Savin Hill Beach
By adamg on Sat, 09/09/2023 - 4:30pm
Bruce the dog got scared and ran off. Photo via State Police.
Update: Bruce found, reunited with family.
Boston and state first responders responded to the end of Southview Street in Dorchester, where a woman walking her dog suffered critical injuries when she was hit by lightning around 3:20 p.m.
Bystanders, one a nurse, performed CPR on the victim before Boston paramedics arrived, the Globe reports.
State Police report that the woman's dog, Bruce, "got scared, ran off and has not been found."
If you spot him, contact the South Boston barracks at 617-740-7710.
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Comments
With so many people out
With so many people out enjoying nice weather earlier today, the odds are not in our favor.
How many Bostonians …
… did you wager would be struck today?
Huh?
Nonsensical.
Sadly, I remember someone
Sadly, I remember someone being fatally hit by lightning at Castle Island. Saw that strike from my office at the Baby Hancock building in 2009 I believe…
I pray the person is all right…
…along with the dog
n/t
Dog has been found
Dog has been found, and safe, per the Globe.
More from the Globe
The Globe has a bit more detail (https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/09/09/metro/downed-trees-no-power-aftermath-fridays-severe-thunderstorms/); seems the victim is alive for now thanks to bystanders with CPR and then EMTs with an AED.d
First aid is something that everyone should know
You never know when basic CPR will be needed and it can make all the difference between life or death. You can take a course for fairly cheap and learning how to use an AED saves lives.
We never really talk about
We never really talk about how traumatic that cpr is. You essentially break some ones ribs. My Mom was given CPR and while, I am really happy it saved her, she was never the same.
I remember seeing some
I remember seeing some article about CPR several years ago where they interviewed a number of doctors and most said they wouldn't want CPR done to them because (according to them) even if you survive you have a quite high chance of significant quality of life issues from brain and other organ damage from the lack of oxygen you almost certainly experienced.
Ok, it was longer ago than I
Ok, it was longer ago than I had remembered. 2012.
"I also asserted in “How Doctors Die” that CPR is rarely as effective as people seem to think. What people have seen on television is at odds with happens in real life. A 1996 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that CPR as portrayed on television was successful in 75 percent of 60 cases and that 65 percent of the patients went home. In contrast, in a 2010 study of more than 95,000 cases of CPR in Japan, health professor Hideo Yasunaga and fellow researchers found that only 8 percent of patients survived for more than one month. Of these, only about 3 percent could lead a mostly normal life. A little more than 3 percent were in a vegetative state, and about 2 percent were alive but had a “poor” outcome"
https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2012/07/23/doctors-really-do-die-diff...
It's a bit more complicated
It's a bit more complicated. The likelihood of CPR succeeding depends on why the heart stopped. If it's because you were underwater for half an hour, or because you sustained a traumatic injury with massive blood loss, the chances of a good outcome are lower. But if (as one of my instructors put it) things are basically ok except for this little thing of the heart not beating, and you can get it going in time, your chances are better.
Glad Bruce was found.
He resembles Ralf, a Norwegian elkhound, who owned Savin Hill when I lived there. Especially his blue eyes.
I hope he will be reunited with his person soon and she will be in good health.
Same for the dog
I hope the dog is okay as well. Being that close to a lightning strike can potentially have ill effects as well.
Good point.
Any number of ill effects possible.
Aftermath of lightning strike
I read a science/med article years ago -- sorry, I don't remember the source -- about what typically happens to people who are struck by lightning. It seems most of them survive (which surprised me)… but that doesn't mean they're OK, as was originally thought. It turns out most of them have long-term or permanent damage to their nervous systems which cause neurological changes, often life-changing, from then on. Scary and sad.
Ouch!! Scary!!
It's not surprising that people who've been struck be lightening are either killed outright by the lightening strike, or are permanently injured. Moris eover, the strike path of lightening is very unpredictable--it doesn't necessarily have to strike the tallest object in the area, either.
My husband has been struck.
My husband has been struck. It is not fun.
I was indirectly struck by lightning when I was a teenager
First, I hope she makes a full recovery and that they're reunited soon. What a terrible experience for them both!
***
Anyway, as soon as we hustled into the barn and were untacking the horses, I felt a strong shock that ran through the horse's bit, into my fingers, down through my arm, heart, and left leg into the stall's floor. The horse reared from the pain. It was awful. I don't recommend it.
As far as I know, we were lucky and had no long-term effects that I'm aware of.
Nobody else in the barn felt or saw anything beyond what happened to us. I think this is what may have happened: https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-science-ground-currents
(Years later, the same barn got a direct hit and burned down. The barn was empty at the time, thank goodness.)
[Edits for clarity and accuracy now that the dog has been found.]