Surviving A Lightning Strike

By James Donahue

There is a story about a woman in West Chester who was struck by lightning and lived to tell about it.

That, in itself, is not too unusual. Even though it involves a strike by a lot of high voltage, people have been known to survive lightning hits, while others are killed or left alive but brain crippled for life. I knew of a young man struck by lightning on a golf course who was left alive, but his brain so fried he was little more than a vegetable.

But this woman, Michelle Durinzi, had a bolt of lightning pass through her head and come out of her feet as she sat outside a restaurant. A paramedic said her heart was stopped and she was technically dead when administered emergency resuscitation. They brought her back and she appears to be just fine.

"I heard some thunder, saw some lightning and woke up in a helicopter," the 20-year-old woman said of her ordeal.

People now see this event as some kind of miracle and are looking at Michelle as if she is some kind of holy person. In fact, the story said people are coming up to her just to look at her and sometimes touch her. It's an obvious sign of a mental decline of the masses. They are willing to worship anything that appears in any way divine.

We also see it in the numbers that flock to look at twisted tree branches, odd stains and other anomalies that look like the "face of Jesus," or on Catholic statues that appear to weep tears or blood.

Even more sickening is that some people have asked Michelle for lottery numbers. They reason that is she can be "lucky" with a lightning bolt, she can also be lucky with numbers. Thus the real god of the human race gets involved even in this event . . . they want her to help them get money.

I had a cousin that was struck by lightning in her youth and she lived to tell about it. She was obviously hurt, however. She spent some time under medical care and appeared at first glance to be fully recovered. But Marilyn Adams was beset with a lot of medical trouble throughout her life. I always wondered if the electrical charge that passed through her body had something to do with it.

Back when Marilyn survived her lightning strike, people weren't as nuts in the head as they seem to be today. Nobody worshipped her, although we all considered her a very lucky woman to have survived an ordeal like that.

And after hearing the story, I always had a lot more respect for lightning storms. So did my father. He had giant lightning rods mounted all over the roof of our house and barns. Thick copper lines connected from the rods down the sides of the buildings and attached to a thick iron rod pounded deep into the ground.

It was always exciting to be in that house during a thunder storm. The house was located in a high place and was usually hit at least once, if not several times during a severe storm. The sound of lightning crackling down that wire, with shards of flashing light sometimes dancing across our living room, was a common occurrence.

That house was never damaged by lightning. And we were never hurt.