National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Telephone Leads to Dizziness, Strong Headaches, Fatigue, Fybromialgia, Toxins Sensitivity

 

I am a Mexican woman who for several years has been dealing with too many health problems. I now understand they are the result of a lightning strike that occurred 12 years ago when I was 41. There was a terrible lightning storm in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. We had just moved there from Mexico City and I didn´t know that lightning storms were so common over that area.

The rain came into the house through the windows and I began to mop it with a special item we call "jalador," which it is made of wood and steel. I was mopping without my sandals (barefoot) when the phone rang. I picked up the phone at the same moment that lightning fell. Something very strange happenned to me. It was as if something moved me with a strong force that came from my right foot to my left ear, just the ear that I was using while I was answering the phone. It lasts just miniseconds but for me it was an eternity. 

The person who was helping me at home told me that I was a live bulb (lamp). I immediately began to feel very hot inside, as if I had fire inside. I looked at my hands in panic when I realized what had happened to me to see if they were burned. They weren´t but something was very bad because I began to feel very tired and very sleepy.

I called my uncle, who is a doctor, and unfortunately he didn´t believe me. He told me that I imagined it all because nobody could resist something like that. So, I didn´t go to the hospital because if my uncle didin´t believe me the others doctors wouldn't either. So I went to sleep. I slept for one whole day (my maid told me that) because I don´t remember even with who I was talking to by phone when the lightning struck.

Since that time I have a lot of dizziness and fall down to the opposite side of my injured ear. Every doctor I visited offered little help. Finally, I went to a Homeopathic doctor who cure me of the dizziness. But with the years, I developed many more symptoms: strong headaches, fatigue, fybromialgia, toxins sensitivity, etc.

My story is very hard because when I began having headaches some doctors made a wrong diagnosis and even I had a cateterism because they tjought I had a vein clot in my brain. Can you imagine that? Of course I have proof of all I am talking of. Now, I´m coping with life. I´m very happy but every day is a battle against symtoms that want me go back to bed. It is very difficult for me to understand myself as a result of something that wasn´t in my hands to control.