Revisiting a case of lightning-caused trauma in a pregnant woman

Abstract

This paper analyzes from a technical point of view, a medical case reported in 2016 about a young couple, man and pregnant woman, stroked by a lightning flash current in the Southwestern United States, resulting in third trimester fetal injury. The most probable scenario of the case it is recreated and analyzed the evidence reported to give a probable explanation of the fetal injury under the panorama of other similar cases. The outcomes of a research work that uses an in-silico simulation in a 3D body model was used to show the current density distribution inside a human body due to a lightning-caused step potential. This study helps to give a possible explanation of the fetal injury at nine-month and the posterior disability of the baby, not given until now.