PEOPLE should be wary of using mobile phones outdoors in stormy weather because they may be struck by lightning, according to doctors.

Three experts have described how a teenage girl was struck by lightning while using her phone in a large London park. The girl, aged 15, was resuscitated, but a year later was still wheelchair-bound and found to be suffering complex physical, cognitive and emotional problems.

The girl also had a perforated eardrum on the side where she had been holding the mobile phone, the doctors reported in a letter to the British Medical Journal. The doctors saw the teenager at the ear, nose and throat department of Northwick Park Hospital, Middlesex, where she was having general rehabilitation.

Swinda Esprit, a senior house officer and one of the authors, said that while the brain and muscle damage was similar to that of many lightning victims — who can experience heart attacks on being struck — the ear problems were not.

She said that the damage — similar to that suffered by person exposed to an explosive blast — were particularly relevant for people who might be involved in less serious lightning incidents, who might otherwise recover, but would never get their full hearing back if struck while on the phone.

“We were shocked by the damage, which is why we wanted to draw attention to it,” Dr Esprit said. “A year on and she still was suffering these difficulties hearing.”

If someone is struck by lightning, the high resistance of human skin usually results in lightning being conducted over the skin rather than through the body — a process known as “flashover”. However, conductive materials in direct contact with skin such as liquids or metallic objects — such as a mobile phone — disrupt the flashover and result in internal injury, with a greater risk of dying, the doctors said.

They added that three other cases had been reported in newspapers in China, South Korea, and Malaysia. In the Malaysian case, a sales executive was killed when he was struck by lightning while talking on his phone during a thunderstorm near Kuala Lumpur.

“All these events resulted in death after the people were struck by lightning while using their mobile phones outdoors during storms,” the doctors wrote. “This rare phenomenon is a public health issue, and education is necessary to highlight the risk.”

The doctors said the Australian Lightning Protection Standard recommends that metallic objects, including cordless or mobile phones, should not be carried outdoors during thunderstorms. However, the United States National Weather Service says on its website that both are safe to use “because there is no direct path between you and the lightning”.

Paul Taylor, of the Met Office, said the ear injuries were a consequence of mobile phones being metal, and not related to radio waves.

“It is well known within the thunderstorm detection community that wearing or carrying metallic objects can increase the likelihood of injury,” he said. “It certainly adds to the intensity of the skin damage and the article certainly amplifies that here.”

Mr Taylor said that mobile phones should be treated as another piece of metal, similar to carrying coins or wearing rings, and people need to be alerted to the possible danger.

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