Teenager Describes Harrowing Experience Being Struck by Lightning

A Florida teenager opened up about his harrowing experience surviving a lightning strike during a fierce summer storm.

Daniel Sharkey, 17, told Fox 35 Orlando that he was mowing a neighbor’s lawn during a summer storm in Altamonte Springs on Monday evening when he was suddenly struck by lighting. "The storm seemed reasonably far away,” Sharkey recalled. “We have local lightning alarms that hadn't gone off yet at the local park, and then the next thing I know I just wake up on the ground."

"It came straight through the tree," Sharkey explained in his first interview from a bed at Orlando Regional Medical Center.

The teen recalled “flopping around” on the ground, unable to speak or move his legs, as witnesses rushed to his aid. "I couldn’t scream—at least, I don’t think I was making any noises," he said.

Sharkey was unsure for a time if he was even still alive after hearing one of his rescuers say the young man went “flying in the air.”

"It felt like an electrocution, that's what it was but it's almost impossible to describe," Sharkey continued. "It really didn't feel like a shock because it's so much more than that. Just everything tenses up, every muscle in your body locks up, and that was really the main medical concern."

Sharkey, who hopes to one day become a firefighter, now wants to educate others on the danger of lightning strikes. But right now, he’s just counting his blessings.

"If it was a direct hit, I probably wouldn’t be here today,” Sharkey admitted. “I am lucky that tree was there.”