text: 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.
target: Woman was struck by lightning in her car in Boston, Lincolnshire .
  Several days later her hairdresser noticed minor burns on her scalp .
  Later that day 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 .