Electrical injuries and lightning
Browne, B.J.; Gaasch, W.R.
Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America 10(2): 211-229
1992
ISSN/ISBN: 0733-8627 PMID: 1559466 Document Number: 400653
Prolonged cardiopulmonary resuscitation is key to the resuscitation of lightning strike victims. Multiple accounts exist of successful revival of victims thought to be "dead" or in patients who have what is often believed to be unresuscitatable cardiac dysrhythmia. Victims of lightning injury may, in addition to their electrical injury, have secondary injuries that require expedient care if significant morbidity is to be avoided. They should be treated as any victim of trauma, that is, with a complete and thorough evaluation including hospitalization if warranted. In the absence of a cardiac arrest or serious secondary injury, care for the lightning strike victim is generally supportive in nature.