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iPod Saves Girl From Lightning Strike

by Terrence O'Brien on June 19, 2009 at 06:41 PM

The iPod is officially the miracle device of the 21st century. Not only does it let us carry around our entire music collections in our pockets, but it has also saved an infantryman's life in Iraq, and led to the rescue of not one but two groups of lost skiers.

So what does this life-saving media player do for an encore? Control lightning and decrease the effects of electrocution, of course! Sure, stopping bullets and signaling rescue teams is cool, but redirecting a 3,000-volt lightning bolt? Now, that is impressive.

As a thunderstorm shook Rayleigh, England Monday night, 14-year-old Sophie Frost and her boyfriend Mason Billington were hiding under a tree (not the best idea) when Frost was suddenly struck by lightning. Amazingly, the bolt passed through the headphones dangling from her neck, and, as a result, shot across her body instead of through it. According to the Times Online, Frost suffered burns across her neck, chest, and leg, but survived the strike. The jolt did render her unconscious, but Billington, relatively unscathed, carried her out to the road where a passerby drove them to the hospital.

Doctors who treated her said the iPod saved her life. If she had been wearing the headphones in her ears at the time, though, it might have been a different story -- the current would have cooked her brain. She wasn't bright enough to stay out from under the tree, but at least she was smart enough to keep the Demi Lovato out of her ears. [From: Times Online]

Tags: ipod, lightning, top, weird

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