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Lightning injures babysitter, tot
It they had been just a few feet farther from a big tree struck by lightning yesterday at a Bucks County swim club, a babysitter and young child might have been spared their frightening ordeal.
Bridget Gallagher, 21, of Lower Makefield Township, and the child, a 3-year-old boy identified as Eric Lamorte, were 10 feet past the tree, rushing to safety, when it was hit by lightning during a thunderstorm.
The bolt hit the top of the tree, traveled down the trunk and through the ground and into the bodies of the young woman and child.
Gallagher, who was carrying the boy, was thrown to the ground in convulsions, said the township's police chief, Kenneth D. Coluzzi. The child was crying but conscious when rescuers arrived, he said.
The babysitter was taken to St. Mary Medical Center and later transferred to Temple University Hospital, where spokeswoman Rebecca Harmon said late yesterday that Gallagher was in good condition.
The boy was taken by helicopter from St Mary's to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. A report on his condition was unavailable last night.
Police said that Gallagher appeared to be more seriously injured than the boy.
Both were treated at the scene by the Yardley-Makefield Rescue Squad and the Levittown Rescue Squad.
Lifeguards had ordered everyone out of the pool at the Brookside Swim and Tennis Club in Lower Makefield about 3 p.m. because of the the approaching storm.
Gallagher was taking the child to the clubhouse to seek refuge and retrieve their clothing so they could go home when the "tragic accident" occurred, Coluzzi said. *
