In 1978, Russian physicist Anatoli Bugorski was involved in an accident where a proton beam hit him in the head. The beam had been sped up to almost the speed of light in a particle accelerator, similar to the one used at CERN, as part of an experiment in Russia. At the time, medics and scientists were unsure what damage could be caused by the collision, as nothing like this had ever happened before, but most assumed it would likely kill Bugorski. He was subjected to more than 400 times the lethal dose of ionizing radiation when he was hit.

Bugorski did not feel any pain at the time the proton beam hit, but did say he saw a light brighter than anything he had ever witnessed. It seemed like the physicist was incredibly lucky. Besides part of his face swelling up to twice its normal size, there were relatively few side effects. When the swelling went down the left side of his face was paralyzed and he was deaf in his left ear, but he went on to live an almost completely normal life and even completed his PhD.