Meeting joins lightning strike survivors

PIGEON FORGE, Tenn., June 29 (UPI) -- Lightning strike survivors have held their annual world conference to share their experiences and help overcome their traumas.

The Lightning Strike and Electric Shock Survivors International World Conference was held this month in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., the newspaper Der Spiegel said Friday.

Mary Ann Cooper, a professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, estimates that nine out of 10 people struck by lightning survive. Cooper is a member of the board of the self-help association that organizes the survivors' conference each year.

The association has 1,400 members from around the world. More than 100 survivors attended this year's conference.

They reported mysterious pains, panic attacks and bouts of severe confusion. They said it was hard getting the rest of the world to believe their ailments.

"This conference is the only place," Jim Segneri told the newspaper, "where I can answer truthfully when someone asks me how I'm doing."