Lightning strike blew man out of his boots

A man who was blown out of his boots by lightning at the weekend says he’s grateful to be alive. Sean O'Connor, 30, from Coweta County, south of Atlanta, Georgia, said he had just picked up a rake on Saturday when, suddenly, he heard a loud crack. “It sounded like a tree falling over,” he said.



“It threw me across the driveway and knocked me out of my boots.” Disoriented, O’Connor initially assumed he had been hit by a tree, until seeing his smoking boot. “When I noticed my boots were on the other side of the driveway and I heard the thunder, I realized it was lightning that had just hit me,” he said.

“When I stood up, I had blood in my mouth. I could smell burnt hair; felt like I had a bad sunburn on my leg," he added. After collecting himself, O’Connor called his wife to tell her what had happened, sending her a cellphone video of the scene when she initially thought he was exaggerating.


YouTube link.

O’Connor’s wife then urged him to go to the hospital, where he was held for 24 hours because of an irregular heartbeat. O’Connor returned home on Sunday, emerging from the potentially fatal incident with lower back pain, a few scrapes from when he was thrown and no indications of permanent damage. “I look like my normal self,” he said. “It’s hard for people to believe I was struck by lightning.”