Tucked in the woods in the shadows of Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson is a 50 acre parcel of land leased by the Black Knight Bowbenders. A group of archery enthusiasts who practice and compete in bow and arrow accuracy in several shooting lanes. Yesterday the group hosted the local Boy Scout Troop, Jackson Troop 204, for an introduction and practice in archery.
Shortly before 7 pm big weather moved from west to east from Pennsylvania into New Jersey. Theresa, my brother Ryan, and I were tucked away inside Al's Airport Inn when the
storm ran through. Lauren was on the road and called us to let us know how bad it was out there. The lighting lit up the sky and as it moved into Jackson, New Jersey, it struck the area of the Black Knight Bowbenders.
According to the press release one person, 61-year old Robert Montgomery, who was a volunteer at the club, died and 13 others were injured. They victims ranged in age from 7-61. Some were transported by ground to local hospitals and some to Saint Barnabus Burn Center in Livingston.
We all know lightning isn't good. As anglers we know that waving a stick around when the lighting is going off isn't a good, or smart thing. But I've fished when there's lightning, because, "It's off in the distance". So what causes lighting anyway? It's all about electrical charges, condensation, clouds, wind,
and the ground. Basically when things are unstable the ions collide causing a huge energy of electricity which travels, sometimes within the air, to other clouds, or to the ground. If it hits the ground it looks for something to "grab" or travel into. That could be a fly rod, a house, tree, building, metal object, or a person. Just this past Monday a 28-year old man died while playing golf up in Hamburg, New Jersey. Funny, well not funny, you never hear of animals getting struck by lightning.
And how does the lightning kill you? Well, if it's a direct hit you will get burned. If you survive that then the big problem with a bolt of electric is it throws off our own electrical pacemakers within our heart. Our electrical pathway, which causes the chambers of our hearts to beat, start in the upper right part in a place called the SA node, it then travels down to the AV node, through the bundle branches and ending at the Purkinje Fibers. The electric causes the four chambers to beat in a lub-dub kind of rhythm. Disrupting that will cause chaos within the heart, which can in the worst case stop your heart, or disrupt the blood flow from the heart to the brain and vital organs.
The most common arrhythmia following a lightning strike is asystole, which is cardiac standstill. There is no electrical activity and the heart lies motionless. The treatment for that is to provide CPR. If there is an AED, automatic external defibrillator, on hand then quickly hooking it up to determine if the heart is in a shockable rhythm shows the best chance of survival. If there
is some electrical activity on the monitor, such as v-fib, above, or v-tach, then delivering electrical shocks is the best move. Shocking the heart will pause electrical activity, with the hope the hearts natural pacemakers, the SA or AV nodes will kick back in.
As with any cardiac arrest the first move is to call 911, check for a pulse, get an early AED on the person, and start CPR is they are pulseless. If you haven't taken a CPR class I would advise you to do so. These days the classes are simple and short and can come in handy if you come across someone who is down. There's no worse a feeling than being unable to help someone, family or stranger, elderly or a child, because you didn't take the time to learn how to help. Just imagine yourself being down and there's just a group of ugly people standing over you gawking at your lifeless body and not knowing what to do.
There are two big CPR certification entities, The American Red Cross and The American Heart Association. If you're a layperson then either one will work, just learn CPR. For those in the business most agencies require that you take the the AHA course. You can find a local class for the AHA, HERE. If you live in New Jersey RWJ Barnabas has a huge network of providers and classes across the state, that website is HERE. Take the class with a spouse, one of the kids, or by yourself.
And like I've been saying a lot lately, and I repeat it not in jest,
