On the same day and at roughly the same time as a lightning strike in Margate took the lives of a mother and toddler, a strike about 25 miles north in Boynton Beach sent a young boy to the hospital, where he remains.
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The adolescent male had been playing soccer on Sunday at the Sand and Sea Village Mobile Home Park, a manufactured home community on Northwest 20th Avenue in Boynton Beach, according to police.
Bentley Hernandez, 12, told CBS12 News on Sunday he saw his friend get struck. He said about 20 children had been playing soccer when rain began moving into the area. Several of the kids took cover, but Bentley says his friend remained on the field, playing with his mother and father.
Hernandez, who was nearby riding his bike, said he heard a loud boom.
“I put my kickstand down, I turned around, and I just hear BOOM!” he told CBS12 News. “Then I just see my friend fall to the ground and I didn’t know what to do.”
Hernandez said his friend’s father immediately began performing CPR as others rushed to help and called 911.
According to Palm Beach County Fire Rescue, crews responded about 2:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon to the Sand and Sea Village Mobile Home Park after receiving reports that someone had been struck by lightning.
“Upon arrival, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue units found one person who met pediatric trauma alert criteria and was being given first aid by bystanders. That person was rapidly transported by ground to a trauma center,” according to a fire rescue news release.
The boy was transported to Delray Medical Center, where he remains.
There were 63 lightning strikes within 15 miles of Boynton Beach between 2:15 p.m and 2:45 p.m. on Sunday, according to AccuWeather. The strikes accompanied numerous clusters of thunderstorms in the area and across most of southeast Florida, with the heaviest concentrations between Jupiter and just north of Miami, according to AccuWeather’s meteorologists.
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As of Aug. 23, four individuals in Florida had died of lightning this year, the most in the country,
The strike that killed Kenya Glasgow and her 2-year-old daughter Kennedi in Margate happened at nearly the same time as the boy was hit by lightning in Boynton Beach. The two were getting out of their car in front of a family member’s Margate home about 2:30 p.m. when the lightning hit. Kennedi’s twin sister, Kensli, was still in the car, and father Kameron Glasgow was about 15 feet away.
The AccuLightning Network showed 120 total lightning strikes within a 10-mile radius of Margate between 2:15 and 2:45 p.m. on Sunday, 84 of which were cloud-to-ground.
National Weather Service meteorologist Nico Porcelli, based in Miami, said he personally witnessed both cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning near Margate, and that more severe storms were occurring in Palm Beach County.
Dr. Adam Rubin, medical director for the emergency department at Memorial Regional Hospital, said a direct lightning strike, while rare, is usually not survivable. However, some strikes are not direct and bounce off another object before hitting an individual.
Injuries from a lightning strike can include cardiac arrest, muscle breakdown, and even vision and hearing problems.
“It really depends on how much current goes through you,” he said. “It’s hard to know what’s going to happen. Some people only get stunned, and others go through cardiac arrest.”
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