One of my biggest fears is lightning. I hate thunderstorms and the randomness of lightning. A bolt struck right in front of me once, and I've been terrified ever since. So, this story is probably doing nothing to quell my fears. A Florida teen recently described the unbelievable pain and shock of being struck by lightning.
He was cutting grass when the bolt struck him. He was in extreme pain and couldn't even scream out in pain. 17-year-old Daniel Sharkey was cutting his neighbor's lawn in Seminole County. He noticed that some storm clouds were rolling in on the horizon. But they were a good distance away. Sharkey figured that he had a bit of time before the storm finally reached him. So, he wasn't in any hurry, according to News 6.
"I was just trying to wrap up before I headed out, so it was only a few minutes," he told the outlet from a hospital bed. "I felt like I had 10 to 20 minutes before everything started and it was just, like, 'Bam!'"
Lightning Struck Teen
That's when the lightning struck him. Sharkey said he went immediately unconscious. He ended up waking a little while later, still on the ground. He found that he was unable to move or scream for help. The teen remained on the ground screaming in pain beside his law equipment. His neighbors quickly ran over to help him.
"The next thing I know I wake up face down in a puddle, and I'm trying to scream but I'm incapable of screaming," he said. "I was rolling around, just waiting for someone to find me. And I'm sure this only took seconds, but it felt like an eternity."
At first, he said he wasn't even sure that lightning struck him. He thought he might have had a heat stroke. "When I first came to, I thought I might have passed out from the heat or something, but then I was like, 'Things don't line up. Everything hurts.' I couldn't really feel my extremities at that time. I couldn't talk," Sharkey said.
As a result of the strike, he has marks all over his arms. Fortunately, he will make a recovery.
