Chapter 738

• When you’re struck by lightning, the joules of energy that run through your body can be lethal. With a direct lightning strike, your body becomes part of the main lightning discharge channel. One portion of the current moves along just over the skin, known as a flashover, whereas another portion of the current moves through your body, inflicting unspeakable damage, and sometimes death.
• The heat emitted by lightning is 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That is five times hotter than the surface of the sun and, with a direct hit, you suffer heart asystole and respiratory arrest. Both happened to me. My heart stopped for five minutes and I was jolted back to life by the paramedics.
• When I got struck by lightning, something else happened;while it didn’t hurt at all, it did leave a permanent Lichtenburg figure on me, which never went away. I was a medical mystery. It also awakened something in me that was beyond anyone’s imagination, including my own.