Texas teens injured by lightning in Colorado
Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 7:18 pm
PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) — Two North Texas teens were recovering at a Pueblo hospital after one was knocked unconscious and both suffered burns from a lightning strike in the Spanish Peaks range of southern Colorado.
Zach O’Neal, 15, and Ernie Elbert, 16, both of Aledo, said the lightning hit Sunday.
Ernie said he did cardiopulmonary resuscitation on his friend until he revived.
The two then made their way down the mountain until they met rescuers who were on their way up.
The boys had accompanied O’Neal’s parents to Colorado for the July Fourth holiday and were hiking by themselves.
They called on a cell phone when they reached the summit.
“It was one of the those ‘Hey, Mom, we made it to the top!’ calls,” Zach’s mother, Kelly O’Neal, told the Pueblo Chieftain.
Later, the parents heard thunder, and then Ernie called again to said Zach had been hit.
“You don’t believe it at first,” she said. “We told Ernie to stop kidding us. But then he said that Zach was down and he wasn’t breathing and he was going to try CPR.”
Zach’s father, Scott O’Neal, rushed up the trail on a dirt bike and on foot and met the boys limping down through rain, their clothes in tatters from the lightning.
“It was the worst day and the best day of my life because, seeing him like that, I knew he was hurt, but going up that mountain, I’d thought he was dead,” O’Neal said.
A rescue team then reached the three and carried Zach to a clearing where a helicopter was waiting to take him to the hospital.
Ernie was carried down on an ATV and then taken to the hospital.
“All we can say is thank God Ernie was there to do CPR,” Kelly O’Neal said. “He saved Zach’s life.”
“I don’t think any of this has really sunk in yet,” Scott O’Neal said. “But Zach’s going to have one heck of a story to tell for a 15-year-old.”
http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/w ... 15257.html
Zach O’Neal, 15, and Ernie Elbert, 16, both of Aledo, said the lightning hit Sunday.
Ernie said he did cardiopulmonary resuscitation on his friend until he revived.
The two then made their way down the mountain until they met rescuers who were on their way up.
The boys had accompanied O’Neal’s parents to Colorado for the July Fourth holiday and were hiking by themselves.
They called on a cell phone when they reached the summit.
“It was one of the those ‘Hey, Mom, we made it to the top!’ calls,” Zach’s mother, Kelly O’Neal, told the Pueblo Chieftain.
Later, the parents heard thunder, and then Ernie called again to said Zach had been hit.
“You don’t believe it at first,” she said. “We told Ernie to stop kidding us. But then he said that Zach was down and he wasn’t breathing and he was going to try CPR.”
Zach’s father, Scott O’Neal, rushed up the trail on a dirt bike and on foot and met the boys limping down through rain, their clothes in tatters from the lightning.
“It was the worst day and the best day of my life because, seeing him like that, I knew he was hurt, but going up that mountain, I’d thought he was dead,” O’Neal said.
A rescue team then reached the three and carried Zach to a clearing where a helicopter was waiting to take him to the hospital.
Ernie was carried down on an ATV and then taken to the hospital.
“All we can say is thank God Ernie was there to do CPR,” Kelly O’Neal said. “He saved Zach’s life.”
“I don’t think any of this has really sunk in yet,” Scott O’Neal said. “But Zach’s going to have one heck of a story to tell for a 15-year-old.”
http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/w ... 15257.html