Thresh's lantern shield

Sometimes when you're playing Thresh and you're at very low health and say for example that you're ignited and right about to die. If you can throw the lantern on yourself, you can live. However, you die before the lantern hits the ground and your w goes on cool down -_-

Can riot change the way Thresh's lantern works if they're shielding people close or zero distance away? It happens too frequently where I play Thresh and I'm on the verge of dying and I use the lantern on myself but end up dying to ignite or deathfire grasp because the lantern didn't land on the floor on time. It's really frustrating when it happens because I could have lived but the shield doesn't go off.