Voice 1: You are listening to an online teen radio programme when you hear this item about a teenager whose life was saved by an iPod. What happened? How could an iPod save anyone’s life? Listen carefully and answer the questions to find out.
Voice 2: A teenager suffered burns when a bolt of lightning was diverted into the ground through her iPod as she was sheltering from a storm. The fourteen year-old could have been killed if she hadn’t been carrying her iPod which she had been given as a birthday present just three days before.
Voice 1: Polly Green was walking through the park near her home in Croydon, a suburb of London, when the storm suddenly started. A keen musician, Polly was taking a short-cut through the park with her boyfriend Ben, sixteen, who had met her quarter of an hour earlier after her music lesson. The couple were on their way to Polly’s home for dinner.
Voice 2: When the violent rain started, Polly and Ben ran under a group of nearby trees for shelter. Lightning suddenly struck and Polly was hit. She passed out and fell to the ground as the electric charge passed through her iPod earphones which were hanging from a pocket in her jeans.
Voice 1: Although his vision was affected by the lightening strike, Ben managed to pick Polly up and carry her on his shoulders to the main road that borders the park. A passing motorist stopped and drove the couple to Croydon General Hospital where Polly was treated for burns to her legs and stomach.
Voice 2: A spokesperson for the hospital said that the teenager could have been killed outright if the metal in the iPod had not acted as a lightening conductor. He said that lightening always finds the quickest way to the ground and the iPod’s earphones had provided this. He added that Polly was still in hospital but Ben had been discharged after his sight had returned to normal.
Voice 1: Polly’s dad told us: 'My daughter is lucky to be alive. The doctors have explained how the iPod saved her life. Her grandma had bought it for her birthday only last week. Fortunately, she wasn’t actually wearing the earphones otherwise she might not be alive today. She is recovering well in hospital. The only thing that she is worried about is that her precious iPod was damaged. But I think we will be buying her a new one when she comes home.'