FREAK EFFECTS

Southland Times, Issue 22131, 27 September 1933, Page 11

FREAK EFFECTS

HUMAN LIGHTNING CONDUCTOR. MEDICAL INVESTIGATION. The freak effects of a flash of lightning which struck Mr W. J. Flower, a Post Office sorter, of Camberwell, England, without seriously harming him, recently, are to receive the attention of the entire medical profession. A photograph of Mr Flower’s back and a full report of the case are being sent to medical journals by doctors of King’s College Hospital, London, where Mr Flower was treated. He was struck while sheltering under trees. His spine acted as a lightning conductor. The lightning, it is now disclosed, struck Mr Flower on the back of his head, scorching his hair and neck, then forked in two directions. One“branch” spread over his left shoulder, while ths other ran down his spine and right leg to earth at his heel. A Cracked Jaw. Beyond a numbness in his legs for a short while after recovering consciousness in hospital and a dull ache where his jawbone was cracked, Mr Flower has suffered no ill effect. His clothes, too, were intact except for' a slight scorching on the inside of his undervest. Mr Flower was only five days in hospital recuperating, and has now recovered. “I think the doctors are satisfied that my physical fitness saved my life,” he said to a newspaper representative. “There seems little else to explain my escape from death. All my life I have kept fit. Boxing, running and physical jerks have been my only interests outside home and work.”