Touched by lightning
(An e-mail story)

Well by now I'm sure most of you have heard about our experience in the first week of our two-week vacation.
Susan and I were staying in the White Mts. at the Red Setter Inn in Greer Az. and decided to go on a hike on the second day, which was Thursday Aug 21st 2003. We decided to hike the West Fork trail, which starts in Greer and ends at the base of Mt Baldy. The weather was nice, partly cloudy but after about an hour and a half it began a light rain so we put on our ponchos. As we walked through a meadow it began to rain harder. When we got to the other side it began to hail with thunder and lightning so I decided we should get off the trail to some big trees for protection from the hail. Susan said that she had heard that standing by trees in a lightning storm was not a good idea but we were getting pelted pretty hard so we did it anyway. We received some relief from the hail huddling underneath the tree branches and the last thing I remember saying to her was "I bet you're glad you brought your hat for protection."
I didn't see, hear or feel a thing. The next thing I know is that it's dark, calm, quiet and I'm not breathing. Like something knocked the wind out of me but with no pain. I've had some experiences with passing out before and thought that's probably what it was again. But it was so dark and quiet. I started to think that it's time to breathe now so I tried to concentrate on that. After what seemed like ten or fifteen seconds I got my first breath and the lights went on but I couldn't move or feel much of anything. Like being in a dream and not being able to wake up. I did notice a strange sweet burning smell.
After about a minute I was able to force my head up and saw Susan fifteen feet away from me down towards the meadow with a frightened look on her face. She had seen the whole thing and saw that I hadn't been moving for awhile. After about five minutes when I was finally able to sit up, I found that my chest, hands and legs from the knees down were numb and paralyzed. She said something to me and I told her that I couldn't hear her at all. She said it again, loudly. "I told you we shouldn't have been under the trees". I looked around and saw that my hat and poncho were totally shredded into pieces everywhere and for a second we looked at each other and it seemed kind of funny. I'll tell you right now that being struck by lightning didn't seem to me to be as bad at that moment as me being wrong. (When it really counted)
Susan was having physical problems also which she will tell you about later but she was able to roll up closer to me after ten minutes or so. I was still totally gimpy and dazed and couldn't even swallow. Luckily she looked up to the trail and saw the only two hikers we had seen all day and got their attention. Marsha and Gary Muncy were our angels of mercy. They helped carry me out to the meadow and set us both together so we could try to stay warm while they went for help.
The ground all around us was wet and covered with hail and we were both getting colder by the minute. All I wanted to do was to be in a nice warm bed. After about forty-five minutes we saw a little red fire dept. ambulance and it looked like a nice warm bed might be a possibility. I was flown by helicopter to the Showlow hospital and Susan was driven there by ambulance. My core temperature was ninety-one degrees when I got there so the warm flannel blankets and heat lamp felt wonderful.
I was flown down to Phx that same night to the Maricopa County Burn Center. (Thanks Janet Napolitano for keeping it open.) It's number two in the country for that type of facility. I spent four days there. Susan was released from the Showlow hospital the next day and came home.
We can't thank everyone enough who were involved in helping us. The Greer Fire department, the Apache County Sheriffs department, Native Air helicopter service and especially Marsha and Gary Muncy. Without them our chances of survival would have been very slim. Marsha told me that their cellphone was almost dead and they tried several times to call out with no luck. When they got to the road they tried 911 one more time, got through and that made all the difference......Thx guys.
All in all we're doing ok. Both of my eardrums are broken but the Doc says they should repair themselves within three months. If not, he can repair them. One good thing, our loud bird doesn't bother me any more. Susan's hearing is just the opposite. It's become hypersensitive since the experience. Our personal thermostats are off. Now we both have hot and cold flashes. (I like to think mine is sympathetic)
That's my story...... Now it's Susan's turn.
I had tromped on out into the meadow being pelted by hail. When I looked back to see where Doug was I saw him standing under the tree. Yes I did mention that wasn't a real great idea. Humoring me he moved away from the trunk a bit. Foolishly I moved back toward him to compromise.
I was blasted off my feet in a roaring vortex of energy and sound. I felt my body hit the ground and as I did, a searing heat and burning began passing through my left side through my rib cage. I was surrounded by a force field blanketing me to the ground. Either the current was going through me or electricity from the ground was meeting the bolt.
I thought to myself, I can't believe I just said this and it's happening! There was a humming I felt more than heard. My body vibrating, and the intensity of the searing heat was scaring me.
All along I thought if it stopped in time Doug could help me. And luckily the current began to lessen. My side felt scalded and puffy. Then everything was quiet. I could see the sky hear the rain and it was over.
Where was Doug? That's when I realized my whole body was paralyzed. All that worked was my head. I quietly chanted sounds from a book about Buddhism just to calm down enough to relax. I lifted my head to find Doug only to see him lifeless on the ground too. His arm was moving. If he had experienced this too, what had it done to his heartbeat? In the past he has had an irregular heartbeat and that was why I looked at him so horrified.
Some how tossing my head gave me enough momentum to roll to my stomach next to my knees. But they were so lifeless and numb all I could do is sit in the mounds of hail. I asked Doug if he could roll, course he couldn't hear me.
When he was finally sitting as well, looking so comical I couldn't help reminding him about standing under a damn tree.
I got to my feet. I was numb from the knees down, scared because Doug couldn't get up at all. Amazingly enough as I had reached him this couple came strolling down the path. My cry for help must have been pretty weak because they just waved and nodded at first. Wonderfully my frantic arm gestures alerted them. There is really no way to thank them for such quick thinking and perfect timing.
All the while there was no sign of Doug's burns they were all under his clothes. I was afraid to look at my side. There really is no way to explain the burning. The skin was scalded. Yet to the touch the muscle tissue was rock hard, distended and totally dead feeling.
As the paramedics began working on Doug I saw the crazy stripe down the back of his head. It was a pretty sobering sight. Later at the hospital I was able to see the spider web tracks across my stomach and side. Fortunately they faded rather quickly. I still feel like I've been kicked by a mule!
Thx for all the help from friends, family and neighbors.
Doug & Susan Arnold
Touched by lightning part 2
Now here's the rest of the story. This came to me today from the people who saved us. It's amazing what a small thread everything was hanging on.
Doug

Hi Doug and Susan,
I was in the middle of typing our story to send to friends and family when I received yours. I finished ours today and thought you might like to read it as well.
Yours in health,
Marsha Muncy
 
Gary and I were spending a week in the white mountains. We went on an 8 mile hike........it was blue skies when we started. The weather changed about half way.........rain, hail the size of a nickel, lightning that was crackling so loud I thought it was thunder, and REALLY loud thunder.......the loudest I have ever heard!!! We started hoofing it down the trail. We were soaked & getting pelted by the hail. It stung, but we didn't want to stop. Gary wanted to get to the open meadow and the truck.
We made it to one meadow and there was a man and a women sitting under the biggest ponderosa at the edge of the forest. They were trying to get out of the rain and hail. The lady waved us over and said she thought her husband had been hit by lightning. He had and she thought she might have been hit as well. The lightning blew the bark off the tree, shredded the mans hat, burned a swath of hair off all the way down the middle of the back of his head (it looked like a reverse mohawk) and left a hole in his t-shirt. He was wearing a plastic poncho and there were small pieces of it many feet away, the lightning destroyed it.
The man asked Gary to help him stand, but the man had wobbly legs like a rag doll. We needed to get help and I told Gary we had to move him out from under the tree into the clearing. The mans wife tried to help Gary move the man, but she was weak......I told her, let me get his legs, so Gary & I were able to get him into the open meadow. We had the wife sit next to him for body warmth and we wrapped them both the best we could in what was left of their ponchos. We told them not to move that we were going to get them some help.
Gary & I had to get off the trail and cut across the meadow to get to a road. I suggested we pile some rocks on the edge of the road where we came out of the meadow for a landmark, so we did. Gary didn't need the rocks to know where to cut across, but I did. I told Gary to try his phone again and dial 911, he did and we got a woman. Gary explained that 2 people had been struck by lightning, he told the gal to get a hold of the Greer fire department and explained what road they needed to take and that we would be headed down that road to meet them. The woman got it all mixed up and Gary had to explain it a couple of times. The gal wanted to know if she could call Gary back and he said no, that his battery was beeping and his phone was going dead.......just send help.........and then his phone died.
The road was slushy with many inches of hail. Gary and I were walking fast toward Greer just in case help wasn't on it's way. We were hoping to come upon a house or maybe a vehicle driving on the road. I told Gary I could run and find a house (I have been training for a charity run in October and I'm up to 5 miles now), but he said we needed to stay together. We went a little over a mile when we heard the sirens. Thank goodness we said!!!!!
I got in the first rescue vehicle and Gary got in the 2nd. I watched for my pile of rocks and it seemed like a long time before I saw them. The vehicle Gary was in took off across the meadow towards the people, mine parked on the side of the road as they didn't have 4 wheel drive. I took off running across the meadow to the people. They were freezing and the rain started up. An EMT was trying to start an IV on the man (his name is Doug) so Gary and I got a rescue tarp and held it over Doug and the EMT. After quite awhile my arms felt like they were going to fall off, but I thought about the weights I have to lift in my muscle class and was okay. I took breaks by putting the tarp over the top of my head. One of the firemen put a jacket on Gary and I thought that was nice. A bit later someone was taking my arm down and slipping a yellow fire coat on me. I didn't realize I was cold........my hands and lips didn't work too good as they were cold, but I wasn't shivering. Someone went over to Gary and put what I thought was some kind of warming pouch under his arm, but it turned out to be a bag of saline they wanted Gary's body to warm up for Doug. The EMT couldn't get the IV started in Doug's one arm as his heart wasn't pumping very much, but he was able to get it going in his other arm.
I heard the sheriff talking on his radio to a helicopter pilot saying it was a hard rain right then and the pilot said he really didn't want to land in heavy rain and he would radio back when he got closer to us and check on the conditions. There was low cloud cover and no visibility for the pilot, so he came in using GPS. It was something seeing the chopper come out of the clouds and land in the meadow. Doug wasn't stabilized yet, but as soon as he was they transported him by helicopter and Susan was transported by ambulance.
The sheriff took our name, address and phone number and said we most likely saved the peoples lives and thanked us. We asked if we could get a ride back to the truck, as we really didn't want to finish the trail in the inclement weather. When we got in a vehicle the temperature read 45 degrees. We were at 9200 elevation and were told the weather can be quite different on the mountain than in town.
We got a ride back to the truck and drove to our cabin. It was 2:00. We got off our wet clothes right away and Gary started a fire. While I was warming up by the fire, Gary took a hot shower, then I took a long hot bath.
We kept hoping Doug and Susan would be okay. Sunday afternoon when we got back home the sheriff called us and we had an opportunity to ask about them. They both were taken to the Show Low hospital. Susan was released the next day and Doug was flown to Maricopa burn center. He was released a few days later.

Well that's pretty much the story. A few days after I got out of the hospital I began e-mailing Dr. Mary Ann Cooper from the National Lightning Safetyweb site. She was very interested in the pictures and the story. She told me more about lightning than I really wanted to know. I brought up a thought that maybe my wet poncho saved me because the lightning followed the water around me instead of through me following the path of least resistance. She said there may be some truth to that. Benjamin Franklin while experimenting with lightning had a saying "you can't kill a wet rat". She said no offense but you were the wet rat.

(Here Is the infamous hat)

 

(The poncho that saved me)

(The dark spot is melted hair)

Meadow rescue

(By Susan Arnold)
 
Once we got Doug settled in the meadow Gary and Marsha put my poncho and the flannel shirts I'd had tied around my waist over his shoulders. Marsha told us to sit closely with each other and asked that we not leave that spot. I believe I told her I didn't think we could move.
They began jog walking, getting their bearings so as to find the road. Quickly their image disappeared on the far side of the meadow. We were alone with the surreal beauty of the wild flowers, tall grasses and natural silence.
Doug asked me if I was alright. Looking at my legs and knees we saw discoloration. Seemed as though blood had pooled in spots and simply quit flowing. Doug's ankles had red inflamed areas. We now know those were burns that eventually turned darker and deep in the tissue. It was then that I noticed blood draining from his right ear. His hearing lose was more serious than I'd thought.
Dark threatening clouds circled around us. The thunder and lightening were more distant but still out there. The rain had even blessedly eased to a mere spit, at least at our meadow. Storms move quickly in the high altitude and change direction on a whim. What if it came back? I tried to fight back the fear and just concentrate on getting feeling and movement back. Doug was also moving his arms, fingers and feet. We couldn't believe how wooden and dead our extremities were.
Doug wanted to just lay back on the ground. Worried about going into shock and the freezing conditions, I kept after him to sit and stay close. Constantly talking to him. We were shaking so hard the poncho and shirts kept sliding off. Fixing them gave us yet another distraction. At that point Doug said he was feeling sick to his stomach. That added another cause for concern. What was going on with him internally? Fortunately we now understand that was because he had no equilibrium.
I heard the first rescue vehicle long before it rolled out into the meadow. Crazily my hearing had become super sensitive. And it remains so. I believe I stood to make us more visible. The sheriff was right behind the paramedics.
I saw Gary and Marsha briefly. They both jumped out of separate vehicles in the meadow. Before I could thank them or express my relief at seeing them again, the paramedics had me down on a board. I wanted them to know we were alright. Because of them, and all these folks we'd be fine.
We were placed on back boards, heads and necks restrained and wool blankets cacooned us. Hot packs were placed around the core of our bodies and wonderful folks held tarps over our faces. It was once again raining! A woman kept talking to me. Do not let myself give in to the need to close my eyes and sleep. Do not try to stop the shivering. That's what's keeping you warm.
She kept explaining to me that they were working hard on Doug, he was fine and that his heart rate was good. When the helicopter lifted him off the meadow I still felt it was a heart issue because of his irregular heartbeat in the past. They did not alarm me with knowledge of his body burns. I did feel relief in knowing he was being helped and quickly on his way to a hospital.
I was bumped along in the back of a vehicle. Everyone kept apologizing for the rough terrain rolling out of the meadow. All I could do was cry. What were they apologizing for? We were leaving the meadow and we were alive!
The ambulance waited on the road for me. I was destined for a different hospital than Doug. Chattering and shaking I was adamant. They must take me to the same hospital. As it turned out I only got to see him briefly before they air lifted him to Phoenix.
When I was released the following day I couldn't get over the notion that something out of nowhere was just going to happen to me. I couldn't keep from crying as I moved through trying to be normal. I just wanted to be totally alone. I was different.
Walking back into our house, I couldn't get over the fact that everything was in its place as always. But nothing would ever be the same!


July 22nd 2004

We had a much better vacation in Greer this year than last year. (No kidding) But of course we had to go back to the scene of the crime and almost a year later we found little pieces of my hat and poncho some thirty feet away. (I have a visual of the Coyote in the Road Runner cartoon) Here's what the tree looked like.........I can still smell the sweet Ponderosa.

Life is good! Enjoy it,
Doug & Susan



Copyright © 2003 - Doug Arnold
All Rights Reserved
Webmaster: Doug Arnold - astudio2@hotmail.com