Alabama teen in ICU after lightning strike hits boat, causing burns and ear injuries
19-year-old operator hospitalized with burns and ear damage after lightning strike on Logan Martin Lake, Alabama
(Image credit: Pell City Fire Dept.)
A 19-year-old man remains hospitalized in intensive care after lightning struck the boat he was operating on Logan Martin Lake in Pell City, Alabama, on Sunday.
According to the Pell City Fire Department, four people were on board at the time of the strike, which happened around 3:28 p.m. near Pirate Island. The boat caught fire, and people raced to carry the man off the boat.
A nearby boat transported the occupants to shore, where first responders treated three passengers on the scene. The boat operator was identified by his mother, Amanda Christopher, as Craig Morris and was taken to UAB Hospital in Birmingham with serious injuries.
“He is a living miracle with a purpose to fulfill,” Christopher shared in a social media post.
She said the lightning entered through her son’s right arm and exited through his right foot, leaving burns and damaging his hearing. “The burn team came and cleaned and bandaged his burns,” she said. “His right eardrum has a hole in it, and the left ear canal is lacerated.”
The teen remains in the ICU while doctors monitor his condition and pain levels. His mother says the ordeal has been heartbreaking. “My toughest, most invincible kid lay there in pain, which is also not mine to describe, but I’m not sure I could even if I tried," she said. "He was begging for relief, and it wasn’t happening. I was helpless to take his pain away, and it broke me."
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