Cousins Recovering From Lightning Strike

Around 60 people a year are killed by lightning. Two Crooksville cousins are very lucky today to not be part of that statistic.

The Savages were outside getting their demolition derby car ready for the fair Monday night when disaster struck.

“It started to rain and we quit painting and we stood under the tree for a minute and I see a big ball of fire coming down and the boys lying on the ground,”tells John Savage.

The ball of fire was a lightning bolt that directly hit Sean Savage. The thunder and burst of light was so intense it temporarily blinded and shocked everyone in the yard.

“I thought the car blowed up, I thought the derby car blowed up because when I came too, Sean was lying on the ground and he wasn’t breathing. I looked over and David was on fire,” explains John Savage.

The Savages say it wasn’t even storming when the lightning struck. The storm was just rolling in when the first bolt came down and hit Sean so hard it lifted him off the ground and he hit a tree. A cigarette lighter in David’s pocket exploded catching his leg on fire. Sean stopped breathing so family members gave him CPR. Both were taken to Good Samaritan Hospital and Sean was then transferred to the ICU at Grant Medical center. Everyone injured from the lightning bolt is now home and recovering. Doctors say with the voltage Sean experienced, he is lucky to be alive.

“He had enough voltage running through him that he could have lit two counties,”tells Shana Savage, Sean’s mother.

Both Sean and David have amnesia of the event. The bolt caused David to have heart problems and he will be monitored by the hospital. Sean is healing at home and on several pain medications. Everyone says they don’t want to be near lightning ever again. The family would like to send a special thank you to the Crooksville Fire Department for their fast response, Crooksville Police Department and Officer Wisecarver.