An unlucky strike
El Mirage teen hoping to get back to normal after being hit by lightning outside his house
Josiah Wiedman had to take doctors at their word that he was struck by lightning.
There’s not much the 13-year-old El Mirage boy remembers from the night of Aug. 8.
He was carrying his skateboard back to his house with some friends at the neighborhood park, and then … nothing.
Wiedman woke up from what felt like a short nap but was actually a medically induced coma that lasted three days. Any memories he had during that time were shrouded in an undefinable haze.
But his mother remembers everything.
Krista Wiedman had finished making dinner when two girls
knocked on her door, their tears foretelling the bad news that was to come. She ran outside to a sea of flashing sirens and a boy crying her son’s name as first responders gave Josiah CPR. Krista feared the worse.
“It was a feeling of sheer horror and terror,” Krista told The Arizona Republic.
“And I could feel the horror from the top of my head all the way down to my feet.”
Paramedics rushed Josiah to a nearby hospital, where doctors determined a medically induced coma would be his best shot at survival. Krista recalled Josiah trying to open his eyes by lifting his torso from the table, causing his eyelids to raise slightly.
Doctors had to hold Josiah down as he screamed in pain.
“That was the most terrifying sound — to hear my son screaming and literally fighting for his life,” Krista said.
Another boy, also 13 years old, who had been struck by lightning along with Josiah was hospitalized with minor injuries.
Three harrowing days later, Josiah was able to breathe on his own, and doctors woke him from the coma.
Dr. Edmundo Chantler, an emergency-room physician at the Mayo Clinic, said being struck by lightning can bring on a wide range of symptoms from minor to lethal, but all must be treated seriously.
Some people walk away from a lightning strike just fine, Chantler told The
Republic. Others endure pain and neurological issues for the rest of their lives.
Chantler said doctors typically treat lightning-strike victims as trauma patients, though they must consider other factors as well.
“If they have a big burn injury, then we have to treat the burns at the same time,” Chantler said. “We (would) treat them like a burn patient, with IV fluids (to) try to protect the kidneys. And obviously, we’re always looking at the heart and making sure the heart’s not having an arrhythmia that we have to deal with.”
Chantler said victims are most likely to die from arrhythmia — also known as an irregular heartbeat — within three hours of being struck, though arrhythmia can also appear much later in someone’s life.
Doctors also run blood tests to make sure dead muscle fibers haven’t leaked into the bloodstream. If that happens, a condition called rhabdomyolysis can occur, where the kidneys can’t filter toxins from the blood and eventually fail.
Because so much can go wrong after a lightning strike, Chantler recommends victims immediately call 911 — even if they feel perfectly fine.
According to the National Weather Service, lightning kills 47 people, on average, every year. So far, 15 have been killed in 2018. Most of the fatal strikes have occurred in the southern U.S. this year, with Florida having the highest number of deaths, at six.
The NWS warns anyone near a thunderstorm to seek shelter indoors and stay away from electronics, water and concrete. The Weather Service says there’s little people can do to reduce their chances of being struck while still outdoors, but warns against standing near trees or other people.
Since awaking from the coma, Josiah has had a relatively smooth recovery. His mom says he still has some minor pain in one of his legs.
Josiah attends concussion classes, along with speech and physical therapy, to get back to the way things were — something he’s already made a lot of progress toward.
He says he feels pretty much normal and just wants to return to school and hang out with his friends, who he said have joked around with him, asking if he has superpowers.
When asked if he would avoid thunderstorms from now on, Josiah was nonchalant.
“I’ll still go running out in monsoons,” Josiah said. “I couldn’t care less.”
“We’ll see about that,” his mother replied.
“It was a feeling of sheer horror and terror. And I could feel the horror from the top of my head all the way down to my feet.” Krista Wiedman Mother of Josiah Wiedman, 13, who was hit by lightning Aug. 8