A woman miraculously survived getting struck by lightning, but the road to recovery has been long and difficult for her. A year later, she's just leaving the hospital.
Thalita Teixeira Padilla got struck by lightning last fall. She was out walking the dog at the time. The moment ended up starting a long year of various hospitals. At the time, Padilla was on a Boston beach. The lightning bolt sent her flying into the air. Fortunately, a nearby nurse ended up providing her aid on that fateful day.
Now, she says she feels born again. The lighting blast left her in critical condition at Boston Medical Center. She experienced burns, damage to her nurves, and worse. The blast injured her spinal cord. Doctors said that she spent several weeks close to death.
"I was crying so much because I don't want to lose my daughter, but she is strong," Padilla's mother, Marcia Teixeira, recalled. But she slowly recovered after the lightning strike. In October, she transferred hospitals trying to learn to walk again.
Lightning Strikes Woman
"It was amazing to watch, she was incredible to work with," Norah Sweeney, a physical therapist at Spaulding, said. She said that Padlla "works really hard."
"She was not able to walk independently when she came from in-patient and now she is out walking, going places by herself," Sweeney added.
Fortunately, it's paying off. Padilla said that she "started to feel less pain" about two months ago. As such, she was able to make improvement in her recovery.
"Something went off like a lightbulb in my head," she said of the moment. Now, she can move with the help of a walker. But Padilla hopes that she is able to fully recover and return to work as well.
"I am starting to think about the future for the first time in this whole year, and it seems very new still," she said. She would like to move to Connecticut and start over.
"It feels like I was born again, it feels like starting a whole new life," she added. She's getting there.
