THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 20, 1994 TAG: 9407200394
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
His face feels like it has been badly sunburned. His lips feel severely chapped. His ears ring and his eyes are sensitive to light. He is slightly groggy and muscles all over his body are sore.
That's what it feels like the day after you get whacked by lightning, Jeffrey Reeves said on Tuesday.
When Reeves got zapped Monday afternoon, he was driving his airport tractor for Continental Airlines at Norfolk International Airport. That's the last thing he remembers.
The most noticeable mark left by the lightning is a burn between Reeves' eyebrows caused when his glasses were superheated by the lightning.
In an interview from his hospital bed, the 25-year-old Reeves recalled that he had just finished using his tractor to maneuver a Boeing 737 that was preparing for takeoff.
As a light rain fell, Reeves disengaged his tractor from the plane and saw a bolt of lightning strike somewhere near the airport terminal.
The next thing Reeves remembers is that he was flat on his back in an ambulance.
``I was trying to tear the oxygen mask off of my face because I guess I was hyperventilating,'' Reeves recalled from his bed at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.
Reeves had been knocked unconscious, burned on the face and sent into convulsions by the lightning bolt. He said the lightning either struck the headset that he was wearing to communicate with pilots, or struck nearby and arced toward him, traveling up the headset cord and striking him in the head.
The headset was blown to pieces.
His partner, Roderic Fields, was standing nearby when the bolt hit and was knocked to the ground. Within seconds, Fields said, he realized that his partner had been hurt. He thought that Reeves might be dying.
``When I looked around he was leaning off the seat and blood was coming from his mouth,'' Fields said. ``He was shaking like he was in convulsions.''
Paramedics had Reeves headed for Sentara Norfolk General within minutes.
Reeves said it is routine for Continental workers to continue working in the rain. They can stop when thunderstorms are forecast, he said, but the decision is up to the individual. On Monday, he said, Continental workers received no warning that thunderstorms were possible.
Despite his encounter with nature's violence, Reeves sees no reason to change either his job or his approach to it.
``I'm going back out there just as soon as I'm released,'' he said. ``It is just something we have to work with. Next time I hope we get a little more warning that there are thunderstorms in the area.''
Reeves, who lives with his wife, Lisa, and their two children on Pompey Street in Virginia Beach, said doctors are still running tests. So far, there doesn't appear to be any permanent damage, he said. Reeves should be released from the hospital sometime today, he said.
``I just think about how lucky I am and thank God that he saw fit to let me live another day,'' Reeves said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
BILL TIERNAN/Staff
Golfers trying to qualify for the Eastern Amateur tournament take
cover along a fairway late Tuesday afternoon after a downpour halted
play at the Elizabeth Manor Golf & Country Club in Portsmouth. The
38th annual four-day tournament is scheduled to get under way on
Thursday.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT GENERAL INJURIES LIGHTNING by CNB