Mobile Phones Users Could be Struck by Lightning

Ditch the mobile phone if you must take a walk in the thunderstorm, advise doctors in the British Medical Journal.

Recent cases of people being hit by lightning have prompted doctors to advise not using mobile phones during thunderstorms. Doctors presented their views in this week's British Medical Journal. According to doctors, people who use mobile phones during thunderstorms run the risk of fatal injuries if they are hit by lightning. 

Doctors cited the case of a 15-year-old girl who was hit by lightning in a park in London, in a thunderstorm. The girl was talking on te phone when she was hit. She suffered an instantaneous heart attack, but was revived. However, she has been plagued by health problems and has been wheelchairbound for a year after the accident. 

Doctors who treated the girl said that she had a severely perforated eardrum in the left ear, where she had been holding the phone. 
According to doctors, when lightning hits someone, it tends to spread over the skin in a phenomenon called flashover as the skin has great resistance to electricity. But, if the individual has a metallic object on his or her person, then the object can force the electric current to enter the body causing grevious injury. 

The doctors also mentioned that three fatal cases of people being struck by lightning while mobile phones has been reported n South Korea, China, and Malaysia.

Although it has not been established that carrying mobile phones when being hit by lightning causes more grevious harm than if you have been just hit by lightning, it still is a good idea to stay out of those wicked thunderstorms, mobile or not.