Family marvels at girl's survival of lightning bolt.

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 8/15/03): Katie Myronenko, reacting to her daughter having survived being struck by lightning, said, "I feel incredibly lucky. This could have very well killed her, and she walks away with burns and very little hearing loss." The quote was attributed to the wrong person in a front-page story Thursday.

LEBANON - Katie Myronenko was sipping morning coffee with her father-in-law when she heard what sounded like an explosion in the back yard.

Seconds later, her husband screamed and rushed inside carrying their stricken 8-year-old daughter, Alexi.

The culprit: lightning.

Alexi Myronenko, a quiet little girl with long blond locks, survived being struck by lightning while sleeping in a tent early on Aug. 5. She doesn't remember anything about it, but despite her injuries and the mounting medical bills facing her folks, she considers herself one lucky child.

"We were trying to get her to pick lottery numbers last week in the hospital," joked grandmother Susan Tindall.

Everyone's breathing a bit easier now.

Alexi and her two siblings were sleeping in a tent with her father, Destry, in the back yard of Destry's parents, who live in the Lebanon area. The Myronenkos, in town visiting, have roots in Eugene and Sweet Home but now live in Bakersfield, Calif.

Thunderstorms had been brewing in the valley and, about 7 a.m., a bolt struck a towering pine tree next to the tent, shattering long strips of bark as it surged into the ground, Katie Myronenko said.

Emergency personnel told Myronenko that the bolt traveled through the tree's roots before exiting directly under the tent - and through the pink pillow on which Alexi rested her head.

The bolt left singed, bulletlike entry and exit holes in the pillow, then traveled through Alexi's head and body before re-entering the ground, Myronenko said.

The girl's heart stopped, but her family resuscitated her with CPR, and she was treated and released after three days in a Portland hospital.

The injuries: a blown right eardrum, where the bolt entered; a hematoma in the left ear; and severe burns in the ears and on her legs, where the bolt exited.

The long-term effect on Alexi's hearing is unknown, but one thing is certain: She's not to return to Bakersfield for at least two weeks because the change in altitude during the trip could be painful and damaging to her, Myronenko said.

That's placed Alexi's family in financial trouble and looking for help because the uncovered portions of the medical bills have quickly climbed above $10,000, and Destry can't return to work.

Nevertheless, "I feel incredibly lucky," he said. "This could have very well killed her, and she walks away with burns and very little hearing loss."

About 80 people are killed in the United States each year by lightning, and another 800 are injured, said Ron Holle, an Arizona-based meteorologist with Vaisala Inc., a manufacturer of weather instruments including lightning-detection systems.

Holle found the accident unusual in a state where lightning-to-ground flashes are uncommon, but consistent with Americans' growing love for outdoor recreation such as camping.

Thanks to cold offshore waters that inhibit thunderstorms, Oregon is among the states with the lowest number of lightning flashes that touch down, Holle said. On average, the state suffers less than one flash per square mile per year; Florida, the nation's leader, has more than 23 per square mile.

On the other hand, "over the last few decades we're seeing a fairly significant increase in the number of lightning deaths and injuries - and the number of outdoor recreation things," including soccer, baseball, golf and camping in tents, Holle said.

In the 1890s, the number of people killed by lightning while engaged in outdoor activity was "a couple percent, at most," Holle said. In the 1990s, 30 percent of those killed were involved in outdoor activities not involving water, which is analyzed separately.

Many times, those killed or injured were sleeping in tents, Holle said. Still, he found the Myronenkos' incident uncommon in light of the state's low frequency of strikes and the general rule that mountains, not valleys, are where lightning typically touches down.

Likewise, the Myronenko family was left to consider a natural phenomenon that, until last week, seemed to be a problem only elsewhere in the country.

"We're not that lightning-oriented here in Oregon," said Tindall, a longtime local dog groomer. "We don't have those major storms like the Midwest and South do."

HOW TO HELP

A trust fund to help with Alexi Myronenko's medical bills has been set up under her name at Washington Mutual bank. For more information, call [phone].

WHEN LIGHTNING HITS

Safe haven: Get to a substantial building or a metal-top vehicle, which acts as a shell; outdoors, heading for a field or a tree can be catastrophic

What you can do: If you're hiking or camping, know the weather patterns in the area

- Lightning expert Ron Holle

CAPTION(S):

Alexi Myronenko, her pillow and her grandparents' tree show the effects of the lightning that struck her.