Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

About 90% of people struck by lightning survive, though many suffer long-term effects including memory problems, chronic pain, personality changes, and difficulty concentrating.

A lightning strike can cause a distinctive fern-like pattern on the skin called a Lichtenberg figure, named after the German physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg.

These figures are caused by the electrical discharge branching through the capillaries and small blood vessels near the surface of the skin.

They are usually temporary, fading within hours or days, and are not actually burns but rather patterns of broken capillaries.