Incident details
A Florida teenager, Daniel Sharkey, 17, was left in excruciating pain and unable to scream for help after being struck by lightning while cutting grass in Seminole County, outside Orlando. The incident occurred on Monday afternoon as he was finishing his neighbor’s lawn, believing he had enough time before the storm hit.
The strike
“I felt like I had 10 to 20 minutes before everything started and it was just, like, ‘Bam!'” Sharkey recounted from his hospital bed. The lightning strike knocked him out, and when he regained consciousness, he found himself unable to move or call for help.
Aftermath
Security footage captured Sharkey flailing in pain on the sidewalk with his lawn equipment nearby. “The next thing I know I wake up face down in a puddle, and I’m trying to scream but I’m incapable of screaming,” he said. “I was rolling around, just waiting for someone to find me. And I’m sure this only took seconds, but it felt like an eternity.”
Recovery and community impact
As he regained consciousness, Sharkey initially thought he had passed out from the heat but quickly realized the severity of the situation. His family shared a photo showing lightning strike marks on his arm. Despite his ordeal, Sharkey is well-known in his community for his charity work, “Cans Over Candy,” an annual initiative collecting canned goods for his local food bank on Halloween.