When the lightning strikes

Previously published in The Berkshire Eagle, July 30, 2008

by Jessica Willis
LENOX — The New Jersey man who was struck by lightning at Tanglewood on Sunday afternoon is in stable condition, his wife said yesterday.

Sang Jough, 40, was taken off a respirator on Monday and is now breathing with the help of an oxygen mask, said Mari Homma-Jough, also 40.

"He's conscious, we can communicate, but he can't speak very clearly," Homma-Jough said.

Jough was transported to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y. after receiving initial treatment at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield.

Homma-Jough said the lightning strike that left her husband unconscious and "technically (not) breathing" was truly unexpected; as the couple and their two children made their way onto the Tanglewood grounds, there hadn't been any previous flashes of lightning.

"If there had, we probably wouldn't have walked through the gate," she said.

Homma-Jough recalled that her husband was walking ahead of the others, followed by son Peter, 10, daughter Sarah, 7, and she took up the rear.

Sang, who is six feet, two inches tall, was holding an umbrella over himself and Peter, and they were hurrying toward the Shed.

"Suddenly, the sound of thunder came down in front of me," Homma-Jough said. "It came out of nowhere. The next moment, my son and husband were lying on the ground."

She said Peter quickly got to his feet, but Sang was lying face down, "totally knocked out," and smoke was coming from the back of his head.

"It was like watching a cartoon," Homma-Jough said. "I thought, 'You've got to be kidding.'"

And then she screamed for help.

Police and rescue crews came very quickly, Homma-Jough said, and she noted that law enforcement, ambulance crews, Tanglewood, and BMC did a wonderful job responding to the event.

Homma-Jough said that Peter had been holding the family's umbrella up until a few minutes before they walked in the gate, and Sang took it from him just moments before he was struck.

"I'm grateful for that," Homma-Jough said. "If (the lightning strike) had happened to my son, I'm not sure he would have made it."

Sang is very healthy, a regular at the gym, and he doesn't get sick, Homma-Jough said.

His strong constitution may have contributed to the fact that doctors couldn't detect any "internal burning" at this point, she added.

That lack of internal trauma is a positive sign, according to Ron Hayden, the chief of emergency medicine at BMC, who said that the lightning probably passed over Sang's umbrella and over the surface of his body.

"A direct hit can go through you and come out another part of the body," Hayden said. "When you get entrance and exit holes, you're probably toast."

Hayden also said Sang's direct hit was less common than a "proximity hit," where a nearby lightning strike "superheats" the air.

"People will look like they've been sunburned," Hayden said. "If they're wearing jewelry, they'll be singed (on that part of their body)."

Blown-out eardrums and burned corneas, along with symptoms that mimic a stroke, are not uncommon in victims, Hayden said.

Lightning strikes, which can carry 2,000 to two billion volts of electricity, often stop a victim's heart, but in most cases, the heart will start up again on its own, Hayden said.

The body's instinct to breathe may remain shut down, Hayden said, so CPR — which a deputy sheriff immediately administered to Sang after the strike — is essential for victims who have a pulse but are in respiratory arrest.

The Joughs were visiting Tanglewood from their home in Westwood, N.J., and she said Peter, who is a violinist, and Sarah, who is a pianist, were so thrilled to be attending a live performance of Beethoven's "Symphony No. 7" and Mendelssohn's "Violin Concerto," two of their favorite pieces.

"We had been planning the trip since April," Homma-Jough said. "And then it was all gone."