‘I was struck by lightning’
Teacher Daina Brown never expected the metal implants near her spine to become a lightning rod.
And ten days later the 38-yearold is still dealing with the aches and strangely ‘dead’ arm that a strike of nature’s fury at her Hamilton school left her with.
Brown was sitting at her desk at Hamilton North school on December 3 when she heard a thunder crack.
‘‘I swivelled on my chair to look at my kids and I looked up to the ceiling and I saw the smoke detector sparking and arcing and then all my lights went. I then literally had this feeling of a current go through my body – it’s kind of odd – I can’t explain really.’’
She was one of four teachers that were affected by a lightning strike at the school that appeared to hit a goal post, run through the ground and a fence and nearby buildings.
Brown said acted immediately after the strike to make sure that her nine pupils with various learning disabilities, aged between nine and 11 years old, were all okay.
It was another 10 minutes before she realised that something wasn’t right.
‘‘I thought my arm feels funny, then my shoulders and my back and my two TA [teachers aides] said the same thing that they were starting to get achy and sore and feeling really bizarre.’’
A headache followed. With the phone lines down Brown called the assistant principal on her cell phone to let them know that they had been hit.
Ambulances were called and paramedics checked the teachers out at school as well as the students.
Teachers were taken to Waikato Hospital for monitoring but all were discharged a few hours later.
The numbness in Brown’s arm lasted from Monday until Saturday.
Brown had a week off work, while two other colleagues have also since returned. One teacher remains off work.
‘‘It was almost like someone had punched me in the arm and I had a dead arm, it was really heavy, I had strength in it but it wasn’t light.’’
She woke the next day to pain in her back forcing her to go to her own GP. The doctor believes that rods and screws in her spine from a previous accident acted as a conductor for the lightning so they are monitoring her over the next few months. Brown said her experience was one of disbelief more than fear.
‘‘I don’t know if it was scary... It was more ‘what has actually happened, did that actually happen?’
A teacher in the adjoining classroom who saw the incident told Brown that he saw the lightning hit the tennis court fence and rebounded onto the classroom.
‘‘Our room just happened to be targeted that day.’’
Brown’s parents have been phoning every day to check she’s ok.
‘‘It still doesn’t feel real, it’s really hard to explain – but I see a lot more people worse off than I am and I have nothing to complain about’’.
Unsurprisingly, Brown is still not comfortable with thunderstorms.
‘‘There was one the very next day I was on the couch talking to my cousin and I literally shook in my boots and gritted my teeth. It was just over my house it really freaked me out. But the little ones are all right.’’