Local teen struck by lightning shares harrowing story

By Ashlyn Mitchell

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    GULF SHORES, Alabama (WALA) — A local teen is still in shock after experiencing the unthinkable.

“The lifeguards told me I pulled back and said ‘I just got shocked’ and then I started hyperventilating. And the next thing I know for sure is I was sitting on the floor and all the lifeguards were around me,” said Michelle Bossard.

Bossard has spent most of her summer outside doing what she loves… lifeguarding. She says she didn’t think much of Monday’s afternoon thunderstorm until she came face-to-face with a lightning strike. She’s still trying to remember exactly what happened.

“We ended up closing for weather so we were under a lightning delay,” she explained. “I was trying to get all of the lifeguards inside just to add a little bit more protection, and I went to open the door for all of them. As I was holding the door, there was a super bright light and everything kind of goes foggy from there.”

The door handle acted as a powerful conductor, causing an indirect strike to Bossard’s body.

“We don’t even know exactly where the lightning hit, but we think it was probably a good mile or two away and it still traveled to me,” she said.

Bossard was rushed to the hospital where she was treated and released four hours later.

“My chest hurt, my head was throbbing, and I was having really bad body aches. I was also super dizzy as if the world was spinning and everything was going slower than me,” she said. “I could feel my body, but it was like it didn’t feel like my body was actually there. It was weird.”

But the next day, her symptoms took a turn and she was forced to return to the hospital.

“I was throwing up until like four or five o’clock in the morning and I couldn’t keep anything down, not even water. It kind of feels like I got hit by a bus,” she explained.

Bossard is now recovering at home, and she has some critical words of advice.

“Before it happened, I honestly thought- I was one of those people who thought ‘it’ll never happen to me, it’s so rare, it’ll never happen to me. A lot of people don’t really realize it happens more than they think even if it’s not a direct lightning strike,” she said.

And her most important advice during a thunderstorm– “just stay inside,” she cautioned.

The National Weather Service reports lightning kills about 20 people each year in the United States with 6 lightning deaths so far in 2023.

Bossard is glad she’s not another statistic.

“All of the doctors were like, ‘you’re just so lucky it didn’t end worse than it did,’ she said. Bossard expects to make a full recovery and enter her first competitive cheer season at the University of Mobile this fall.

When encountering or near lightning, the National Weather Services advises:

If you can, stay inside during a thunderstorm. Stay away from tall objects like trees and poles. Lightning is more likely to strike a taller object. Avoid metal conductors like wires and fences- metal does not attract lightning, but it does travel through it. Avoid open areas. All thunderstorms produce lightning- expect the worst.

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