After Josiah Wiedman was struck by lightning in an El Mirage park last week, the 13-year-old is thanking God for sparing his life.
“If it weren’t for Him, like, I’d be dead,” the Arizona teen told KPHO. “It’s an all miracle.”
“I felt like this burst of like heat and everything went dark,” said Josiah, recalling the sensation that went through his body when the lightning hit. “It just felt like needles constantly being stabbed into me,” he added
The teen hit his head when he fell to the ground, which led to a concussion. Thankfully a neighbor close by witnessed the event and started performing life-saving CPR.
Once Josiah was transferred to a local hospital for treatment, he was in a medically induced coma for 3 days, but he’s since been recovering rapidly.
The electricity was enough to stop his heart temporarily, but fortunately did not damage his organs. Josiah’s mom believes the skateboard her son was holding took the majority of the electric shock.
Just five days after being struck by a lightning bolt that should have killed him, Josiah walked out of the hospital.
While he will need to go through some physical and speech therapies, the teen is anticipated to make a full recovery.
Dr. Egan of Phoenix Children’s Hospital said he’s never witnessed a lighting victim bounce back as quickly as Josiah.
“I’m very amazed there’s not more injury to Josiah or his friend,” said Dr. Egan.
As for Josiah, he’s feeling a bit like superman after surviving such a traumatic injury.
“I feel like I’m superman right now,” said Josiah. “Dang, I survived it,” he continued. “I was dead for, like, 15 minutes. Dang. I beat death.”
See more from Josiah’s miracle story in the Fox10 interview below:
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