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The Medical Side of Lightning
Wed Jul 16, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook. Dr. MaryAnn Cooper, of the University of
Chicago, is widely respected as a leader in research and treatment lightning-strike patients.
I spoke with her recently at the Severe Weather Workshop in Norman, Oklahoma.
BRYAN: This is the second leading weather-related cause of death in the United States. Does
that surprise a lot of people?
MARYANN: I think that surprises a lot of people. One of the reasons it surprises people is
because lightning injuries are individual deaths, usually - maybe one, maybe two, maybe 3
people at most. And it may hit the newspaper but it's not like how many deaths after a
tornado or hurricane or other events that get a lot more press than lightning.
I think people are optimists, basically, by nature. We all think we're gonna win the lottery
and we all think we're not going to get hit by lightning. And, in fact, the odds are just the
opposite.
BRYAN: You work with lightning survivors and with them, I assume, your major concentration is
preventing that from happening to other people?
MARYANN: Well, I have several goals. One is the people who are injured - we can't prevent
their injuries, they've already had them. What do we do to make them better, to make them
understood, to accommodate to the injuries and go on with their life again. The other aspect
is prevention of this ‘cause I'd much rather prevent the injuries than take care of the people
after they've been injured. And, a third issue, I suppose, is, that's much harder to address,
is once the injury's been started - you've been hit by lightning - then you've got a
progression of things that are going to happen.] Is there anything we can do to intervene
that will stop that progression of expected consequences from the lightning injury?
Tomorrow, what lightning does to our bodies. The Weather Notebook is supported by Subaru of
America, and the National Science Foundation.
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