BATON ROUGE — A Baton Rouge woman is recovering after she and her husband were struck by lightning outside their home during a July 3 thunderstorm. Rebekah Prevost and her husband, Dale, were walking inside when lightning hit a nearby tree, sending an electric charge through the couple.
Dale said the bolt of lightning sent them both into the air. “She runs around in front of the truck, and was going up the front walk to go in the door. She’s got one foot in the grass, one foot on the concrete in the driveway,” Dale explained. “The lightning hit one of the cypress trees and transferred the electricity to her and to me in the driveway.”
Dale continued, “I went up in the air and landed, leaned up against the truck. She went up in the air about a foot, landed on her feet and did a face plant onto the concrete, on her chin, and she was completely unconscious.”
Dale said he couldn’t move for about 15 seconds, but ran to Rebekah as soon as he could. She was bleeding from her chin and her ear, and he took her inside the house and called 911.
Rebekah’s Injuries
Rebekah had to have surgery on her jaw, which she broke on both sides. “It was broken really bad in a few places on the right side,” Rebekah told UWK. “So they had to put in three metal plates with screws, and then on my left side, it’s broken where the joint meets the skull.” Doctors told Rebekah repairing the left side of her jaw is too risky because it’s surrounded by nerves that control movements in her face, so they will let that side heal naturally.
“The doctor said I was a walking miracle, because I have no brain damage,” Rebekah said. “My CPK level was elevated a little bit, which he said is normal when you get hit by lightning. But it wasn’t enough to cause kidney damage, brain damage, or muscle damage. So the fact that I got out of this with a broken jaw and a few stitches in my chin, I feel incredibly blessed.”
Doctors had to go through Rebekah’s neck to get to her jaw, and right now she has a drainage tube in her neck. “That’s the worst part right now, is just my throat is swollen and it hurts on that side,” she said.
Dale added, “She’s got a spot on the top of the head. It’s scabbing up now, but it burned all the hair on the top of her head. It burned a big chunk of her hair off.”
Lessons learned
The Prevosts said the whole incident happened fast. Dale said he was counting the seconds between the thunder and lightning, but he wasn’t expecting the bolt that hit the tree. “But that one, it was like lightning strike and thunder on top of each other, simultaneously. You know, you got to be careful with the crazy weather,” Dale said. “I saw the bolt. It lit us up, and the thunder was enough to shake you in itself.”
Rebekah continued, “Don’t ever think you’re safe by running quickly enough when it comes to lightning. We were only a few feet from the house, and I hopped out the truck and was running inside, and it happened that fast. So I would say, do not take a chance when it comes to lightning.”
Rebekah said she is always very cautious when it comes to the weather, and is even a member of a North Carolina weather team. “I knew it was lightning and really bad,” she said. “And right before I got out of the truck, I literally said a quick prayer. I said, ‘Lord, let us get inside safely or quick enough.’ And that was the last thing I remembered. And so I think that prayer right there might have saved my life.”
Rebekah’s sister, Samantha, created a GoFundMe to help support Rebekah’s new liquid and soft foods diet. You can donate here.
Doctors said Rebekah shouldn’t need any additional surgeries unless a complication arises as she recovers, and she is expected to leave the hospital tomorrow.
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