@entity23869 caused by discharges accompanying flashovers--a clinical and experimental study of XXXX and survival.

@entity1 @entity397 @entity35 @entity23869 @entity204
During the 17 years preceding March 1985, 140 @entity1 sustained @entity23869 caused by 44 thunderbolts. Fifty @entity1 showed evidence of current flow through their bodies. These 50 victims were classified into two groups, the first consisting of 9 victims who showed @entity397 of their clothes or linear superficial dermal burns along their whole bodies from head to feet, indicating the occurrence of surface flashovers. The remaining 41 @entity1 showed no evidence of this flash effect. It is noteworthy that in the first group 5 of the 9 survived, whereas in the second group only 6 among 41 survived. The result indicates that when a flashover occurs along the whole body, the probability of survival is higher than 50 per cent. The conditions which determine @entity204 or survival were investigated experimentally, imposing artificial lightning voltage impulses on @entity35 and developing flashovers on them. The @entity35 survived when the voltage drop caused by flashover occurred immediately after the peak point, and the current waveform exhibited a sharp peak. In contrast, the @entity35 were killed when the voltage drop caused by flashover was delayed by more than 20 microseconds, and the current waveform showed a blunt cone shape. It has been concluded that a fast flashover appreciably diminishes the energy dissipation within the body and consequently results in survival.
