Woman hit by lightning

shandsburnRN-CRNA · Oct 7, 2007

A 90% burn is huge no matter what degree it is. Even a sunburn that involves 90% of your body will cause ill-effects. That being said lightning is super super hot, so chances are most of her burns are third degree. If she is comatose without sedation medication with a burn of that size her prognosis is surely grave.

Look at it this way. The only skin that will grow on your body is your own. We use artifical skin and cadaver skin, but those are only temporary, they will not "grow" onto the body and eventually have to be removed. There have been studies with culturing and growing skin in a lab, but that skin is usually of poor quality (at least the studies I was involved in). This lady has 90% of her skin which is burned and probably dead, which means she only has 10% of usable skin to harvest and use as grafts. Now you can reharvest donor sites, but only so many times and certainly not enough to replace 90%.

Therefore, the most important question is how much of the 90% is skin that will not grow back. If a smaller percentage, say 30%, needs to be removed and grafted then her chances are much better. This is because of one other thing, when the skin is harvested it is "meshed" before being placed, that is the surgeon may take an area of skin that is 15cm x 15cm, but can stretch it, once its meshed to 30cm x 30cm.

Also how long has it been since this lady was struck by lightning. When a person is struck by lightning the electrical jolt will shut down the respiratory centers of the brain, but that usually resolves itself within a few days to a week. Once the stun of the electrical jolt "wears off" the brain will usually make the person begin breathing on their own again.

Conrad283, BSN, RN · Nov 4, 2007

The amount of current that went thru her body was probably massive and thus did extensive cardiac damage.

Sorry to hear about that, it's rare, but it does happen.

Liddle Noodnik · Nov 4, 2007

I'm so sorry, I forgot I posted this, and I don't think I got the notification of your post, shandsburnrn! Anyway - the lady is getting up in a chair, feeds herself and, at last report, recognized her grandson and lifted up her arms to touch his face! No mention was made of the progress of her burn situation, but much prayer has been invested in this lady and the docs think she will continue to improve!

shandsburnRN-CRNA · Nov 5, 2007

Good to hear she is doing better and her cognition is intact. My thought and experience as a burn nurse tells me that if she's sitting up in a chair, she is no longer on a ventilator (very good) and that her burn wounds are healing. For the most part a person whos burn injury does not heal stay very, very sick, require continued life support and eventually die.

However, it sounds like this lady is on the road to recovery...good for her.

Liddle Noodnik · Nov 7, 2007

Good to hear she is doing better and her cognition is intact. My thought and experience as a burn nurse tells me that if she's sitting up in a chair, she is no longer on a ventilator (very good) and that her burn wounds are healing. For the most part a person whos burn injury does not heal stay very, very sick, require continued life support and eventually die.
However, it sounds like this lady is on the road to recovery...good for her.

Yes it does sound like it! I don't know her, heard "of" her from a friend w/ no medical background, but the situation did not sound good!

Thanks for your feedback!

donsterRN, ASN, BSN · Nov 7, 2007

I'm so happy about her progress; wonderful news! Continued prayers for all concerned.