Human Endurance

Has any of you ever wondered just how durable the human body can be? Well sometimes the truth can dazzle you. Today's post is mainly made to show you just how powerful the human body can be.

In this post I'm going to introduce you to one of the most "powerful" people in the world: Roy Sullivan. "Who is this guy anyway, Jason?" many of you might ask. For those of you who don't know (and I bet that's pretty much the majority of you), Roy Sullivan is the record holder for "human lightning rod". He has been struck by lightning seven times (all at different times, of course. If he was struck by all seven bolts on the same day, you can imagine the pain) and is still breathing as we speak. Here's a log of his lightning strike survivals:

Strike 1: Tower Power
Sullivan's first strike dates back to April 1942, when he was sheltering in a fire lookout tower in the middle of a thunderstorm. Towers weren't so safe back then (I'm guessing that Ben Franklin wasn't born in 1942, but that's just a guess) because there were no lightning conductors on towers back then. Sure enough, the lightning struck the highest thing around: the tower Sullivan was "hiding" in. The tower caught on fire. Sullivan, realizing the tower was no longer safe, stepped out of the building and out into the open. A few seconds later, a flash of lightning made him a human lantern for a few miliseconds. Can you see the delicious irony of this all? A guy tries to take cover from a thunderstorm and got the first lightning strike of his life! The bolt left a scratch on his foot, hit his toe and left a hole in his shoe (that must've been his "holey" shoe from then on. Ha ha).
Strike 2: Lightning Con-"truck"-tor
July 1969: Sullivan was driving a truck in the middle of yet another storm. Despite his (almost) guaranteed protection in a truck, a lightning bolt bounced off several trees before finally hitting Sullivan's open window, striking him. The strike burnt off most of his facial hair and knocked him out. As for the truck, well, it kept moving until it neared a cliff edge.
Strike 3: Back At the Barnyard
1970: This one was quite boring. Sullivan was out in the yard when ANOTHER lightning bolt came to spoil the peacefulness. It struck a nearby transformer before jumping onto his left shoulder, searing it.
Strike 4: The Omen
1972: When lightning struck him the fourth time, Sullivan started thinking that some force was trying to destroy him and he started to get that fear of death. For months he started to take extra safety precautions, such as bringing a bucket of water around believing that water was a better conductor than him and the lightning would strike the water instead of him. Every time he encountered a storm while driving his truck, he'd pull up and lie down on the front seat until the storm passed.

I'll continue the rest of the post ASAP. I hope you readers aren't too disappointed, though. Peace out!