A 77-year-old woman was left partially blind after a lightning bolt struck her as she sat in her car . Despite the dramatic and rare event , the woman 's injury was not detected straight away . Rather , her hairdresser noticed several days later that she had suffered minor burns on her scalp . Later that day the pensioner noticed her eye sight was blurred - she could barely see with her right eye . A few days later , she visited the opticians and was referred to see opthalmologist Mohit Gupta , who works at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston , England . The 77-year-old woman was struck by lightning while she sat in her car . Days later , after her vision became blurred , a scan of her retina revealed she had a hole in her retina . Mr Gupta scanned the patient 's retina , using a relatively new technique known as optical coherence tomography ( OCT ) . The case report into the woman 's treatment , published by the journal BMJ Case Reports , reveals Mr Gupta discovered a hole in the patient 's macula , a part of the retina that is responsible for around 90 per cent of a person 's vision . Dr Permesh Dhillon , a medical internist and colleague of Mr Gupta , said the woman 's case reveals how important it is that medics check the vision of anyone struck by lightning . He told LiveScience : 'In the future , if patients are struck by lightning , it should be a routine process to refer them to an ophthalmologist to have an eye assessment . ' He said the retina does not conduct electricity well , suggesting the injury was caused by the heat produced when the bolt struck . The woman was prescribed eye drops , but suffered an allergic reaction to them . She later underwent surgery to repair the hole in her macula , after two months of poor vision . Dr Permesh Dhillon , a medical internist at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston , said the heat from the lightning bolt is thought to have burned a hole in the woman 's retina . It was eventually treated , via surgery . The operation involved removing the jelly part of the eye , which touches the retina , and injecting a gas bubble to push the layer at the back of the eye back together , Dr Dhillon said . He added his patient was 'quite fortunate in that only her retina was affected , and only in one eye ' . Between 30 to 60 people each year are struck by lightning in the Uk . Meanwhile across the Atlantic , the US sees an average of 51 people injured by lightning each year . Only around 10 per cent of those struck by a bolt are killed . Dr Dhillon said there have been reports of lightning strikes affecting other parts of the eyes , resulting in cataracts , burns or swelling .
Woman was struck by lightning in her car in Boston , Lincolnshire . Later that day her hairdresser noticed minor burns on her scalp . Several days later the 77-year-old noticed her eye sight was blurred . A scan of her retina revealed heat from the bolt burned a hole in her retina .