Ipod and Lightning

Getting struck while wearing your iPod: "Doctors at Vancouver General Hospital in Canada said a 37-year-old jogger wearing an iPod was left with a Y-shaped burn on his chest, neck and face after the man and a nearby tree were struck by lightning in 2005. The lightning then jumped to the jogger."

"Witnesses reported that he was thrown approximately 2.4 metres from the tree, they said. His eardrums were ruptured, his jaw fractured and he suffered first- and second-degree burns from his chest -- where the device was strapped -- up into his ear channels, along the trail of the iPod's earphones. He also had burns down his left leg and foot, where the electricity exited his body, blowing his sneaker to smithereens in the process."

"While lightning usually flashes over a victim's skin, the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reports that the headphones of an iPod can act as a conductor, directing a bolt of electricity straight inside the listener's ear - rupturing eardrums and leaving severe burns."

So, there are times when it pays to NOT be connected to the information, communication, sight, and sound network that engulfs us all!

Caregiver Info You Can Use

Bottom Line Personal, a publication of Boardroom Reports, offers a most useful list: a Caregiver's "Emergency Kit"

* Personal basics:
Social Security number (original card or a photocopy).
Keys (home, car).

* Health information:
Photocopy of Medicare cared.
Copy of Medigap policy or policy number and agent contact information.
List of current diagnoses.up-to-date list of current medications with dosage schedule.
Primary care physician and specialists with phone numbers and which conditions they are treating.

* Legal documents:
Living will (if they want extraordinary measures taken in a medical emergency).
Power of attorney for medical and/or financial decisions.

* Financial information:
Co-signing power for bank and brokerage accounts and safe-deposit box
Savings accounts numbers
Investment information
Stock broker
Loans information
Pension, etc.