Woman who had to be brought ‘back to life’ after being struck by lightning speaks about experience
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Featured Image Credit: Lauro Soto/Facebook Cathy Scola/Getty
There are a few ways that can be considered the worst things to happen to you and often times you’ll see ‘struck by lightning’ right up there - there’s a reason for that.
One woman has now come out to speak about her ordeal after being struck by lightning, as she was technically ‘dead’ for two minutes.
The Florida woman, Rebecca Soto from Lake Nono, was hit by lightning last month while on a walk with her dog, Drake.
All seemed to be going well until she was hit and found lying on the ground by her husband, Lauro, which led to Soto being knocked unconscious and her heart stopping for a period of time after being rushed to hospital.
The emergency services were called to help her, and paramedics fought to get her heartbeat back with the use of a defibrillator on the way.
But the effects of that day would have a lasting impact as she was forced to stay on life support in hospital for a week to recover from burns and memory loss.
Her time spent recovering involved therapeutic hypothermia so that she could preserve brain function.
According to reports, her husband recounted the event, saying: “Somewhere in between them picking her up and the ambulance ride, her heart had stopped, and they were able to defibrillate her and bring her back.”
But even though it has been a month since the incident, Soto is still dealing with the aftermath and wants to come forward about how it has impacted her life.
When speaking to ClickOrlando, Soto said: “I just keep coming back to the word grateful — grateful, and very fortunate to be where I am today and have healed as much as I have in the past three or four weeks.
“It’s an astounding thing to realize and to think about. Just like, that thought of like, ‘I died’, that’s pretty heavy. Like, that’s a lot to process.”
When explaining her recovery and her memory loss, she went on to say that she leans on family and friends to explain stories about photographs they are all in.
“I’ve seen pictures, heard stories and stuff, and just through it all, I’ve felt really grateful to be here where I am,” she said.
Thankfully, she has recovered enough to be able to be independent in some tasks such as returning to work, playing with her dog and driving again, but there is one thing that keeps pulling the couple back to reality - her medical bills.
Now, with the burden of having to pay so much money, the couple created a GoFundMe page to offset the expenses.
Set up by Tiffany Travelute, it states: “Medical expenses are stacking up and Lauro and Becca's insurance is out of network with the hospital they were taken to by the ambulance. There is also continuing care, medicine and therapy needed to get her back to some sort of normalcy.”
In a recent update, Travelute shared how Soto has been getting on: “This time last week, Becca needed to be reminded every 10 minutes why she was in the hospital and wouldn’t believe us when we told her she was struck by lightning (which I don’t blame her…it’s pretty unbelievable!).”
“Today, Becca is able to write notes in a journal she keeps close about key things she may forget.”
The fund has currently reached $37,488 of the $60,000 goal and hopefully they reach their target soon!
