Imasha died not from lightning, but from brick pieces falling on her - Post-mortem examination

Amidst the thunder, death, having broken into the house, snatched a young life, leaving behind a fate more terrifying than a random act of nature's wrath. The news of a garment worker's death after a powerful lightning strike on a lodging in Kokwatta, Habaraduwa, was initially reported as a direct lightning strike, but the facts revealed during the post-mortem examination have shaken the entire region.

The young woman who tragically lost her life in this manner is 26-year-old Imasha Madhubhashani Hithawansha, who worked in the Koggala Free Trade Zone. Although it was initially suspected that she died from a lightning strike, investigating officers confirm that the direct cause of death was severe head injuries sustained from falling concrete or brick debris, which resulted from the damage to the lodging building caused by the lightning strike. The unique aspect of this incident is that the lightning did not directly touch her body.

Imasha, who resided in the Pasgoda area, was the second daughter in a family of three sisters. The night before the incident, she was preparing to go home, but her journey was halted due to the onset of night and adverse weather conditions. Instead of returning to her ancestral home, which she was scheduled to do in a few hours, she ultimately had to go to the mortuary, a cruel twist of fate.

The other young woman who was in the room with her at the time of the incident is also in severe shock and is currently receiving treatment at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital in Galle. Hospital sources state that the lightning strike was so powerful that even the electrical appliances in the house were burnt, and Imasha had already breathed her last when she was brought to the hospital by the 1990 Suwasariya ambulance service.

She might not have thought for a moment that the very building she believed to be safe would become her deathbed. As the lightning from the sky turned the house into rubble, buried amidst that debris was the future of a young woman who toiled to ignite hopes for a poor family.

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