Arizona Teen Says He Feels Like 'Superman' After Surviving Lightning Strike

An Arizona teenager is lucky to be alive after he was struck by lightning while walking through a park last week. 13-year-old Josiah Wiedman and his friend, Javier Tapia, were walking home when a line of severe thunderstorms rolled into Phoenix. As it started to rain, a massive bolt of lightning struck Josiah, launching him into the air and stopping his heart. Javier was also struck but was not seriously injured. 

"It started kinda raining, so I was going home," Josiah recounted to Fox10. "Then, randomly, I felt this burst of heat, then everything went dark."

A neighbor who witnessed the teen getting struck rushed over and started to perform CPR, which saved his life. Paramedics arrived and rushed Josiah to the hospital, where he remained in a coma for three days. When he woke up, he had very little memory of what happened. 

"He remembers... jumping back on his skateboard and going back home," Weidman's father told AZCentral. "He thought he was at home and asleep for two hours when it was three days."

Just two days after waking up, Josiah was released from the hospital and walked out under his own power.

"Dang, I survived it," Josiah said. "I was dead for, like, 15 minutes. Dang. I beat death."

 He will still need to go to physical and speech therapy but is expected to make a full recovery. 

"I feel like I’m Superman right now," he said.


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content