Ammon News - Most people spend their entire lives trying to avoid being struck by lightning even once. Roy Sullivan survived it seven times.

The American park ranger, who worked for decades at Shenandoah National Park, became famous around the world for surviving an extraordinary series of lightning strikes between 1942 and 1977. His story was later recognised by Guinness World Records as the most lightning strikes survived by a single person.

According to official records from the US National Park Service, Sullivan’s first known strike happened in 1942 while he was working in a fire lookout tower. The lightning reportedly tore through his leg and damaged one of his toenails. But that was only the beginning.

Over the next three decades, Sullivan was repeatedly struck during storms while driving, hiking or working outdoors inside the park. One strike reportedly set his hair on fire. Another burned his eyebrows. In one incident, lightning hit him while he was fishing, knocking him unconscious. Yet somehow, he survived every encounter.

As news of the incidents spread, Sullivan became something of a legend. Fellow park rangers are said to have joked that storms followed him around. According to some reports, people even avoided standing near him during bad weather because they feared being struck themselves.

Scientists have long pointed out that surviving multiple lightning strikes, while extremely rare, is possible because most lightning victims do survive if they receive immediate medical attention. Still, Sullivan’s case remains extraordinary because of the sheer number of strikes officially linked to him. The odds of one person being struck by lightning even once in a lifetime are already extremely low. Being struck seven times is almost unimaginable.

Despite the repeated incidents, Sullivan continued working outdoors for most of his life.

He died in 1983 at the age of 71. His death was unrelated to lightning. But decades later, Roy Sullivan’s story remains one of the world’s most unbelievable real life survival tales.

MSN