A teenager in Texas endured a series of shocking injuries after being struck by lightning in the stomach during a recent fishing trip. Hunter Wyche, 19, was leaning against a tree while fishing in Jasper on Saturday with his mother, according to KPTV.
Wyche told the outlet that he recalled blacking out just before the lightning made contact, which threw him next to a nearby tree and left him with severe injuries. 'The strike kind of went in through my stomach and went all the way down through my leg and came back up through the top of my foot,' he said.
After regaining consciousness, Wyche could not feel his legs and was unable to move his right foot or his entire right leg. Visible burns were evident across his body, along with dozens of marks on his face. 'Most of what I felt was wood and stuff all over me from this tree that exploded, which is what's all over my face. I've got little thorns and stuff still all in my skin, and they went deep,' the teen explained.
Remarkably, after only 10 hours in the hospital, he returned the following day to go fishing again. According to Outdoor Life, doctors confirmed that all feeling in his legs had returned by 6 a.m. Doctors cleared him of any serious injury, though he still suffered bruising and had all the hair on his right leg burned off.
Wyche expressed gratitude for the quick response of first responders. 'I still have a great memory of everything that happened. It was just that split second from when the lightning hit me to when I hit the ground,' he said. 'I was cracking jokes with everybody, because this whole crowd of people ended up around me. I was having a good time.'
He also noted that he was extremely fortunate that several pieces of sharp wood that exploded from the tree missed his body. His mother, Michelle Wyche, told KPTV that it was a miracle her son is alive: 'I got to hug him and hold him because he was home already.'
Wyche said his fishing rod was destroyed, and the incident gave him a once-in-a-lifetime experience he won't forget. 'I just got lucky. That's all there is. I'm probably the unluckiest, lucky man alive,' Wyche said.
According to the CDC, 40 million lightning strikes hit the ground in the US each year, but men are four times more likely than women to be struck.
