Hit by lightning Monday, he's OK and not worried it will happen again

His body was shaking like never before. Blood poured from a tiny cut between his wrist and his thumb.

Moments earlier, around 8 p.m. Monday, David Bodkin-Parris, 14, had run to his friend's car, parked on Ashland Avenue in Glenolden, Delaware County. Thunder echoed around him. Wind shook the trees. Rain pounded the pavement. Then, it struck.

"At first, it seemed not real," Bodkin said Tuesday. "I got hit by lightning."

Odds are one in 12,000 that someone will be struck by lightning in his or her lifetime, according to the National Weather Service.

In June 2007, another 14-year-old boy, Zachary Yizzi, was struck in Cherry Hill. The bolt that hit Yizzi stopped his heart, knocking him unconscious and severely burning his body. He recovered but does not remember the incident.

When Bodkin was struck Monday, he was leaving the home of his birth mother, Mellisa Parris, with a 16-year-old friend. The two were planning to drive to Prospect Park, where Bodkin lives with Jayne Von Bergen, his aunt and adopted mother.

As the boys headed out to the car, a brutal storm rolled in, bringing rain and hail along with thunder and lightning.

Most local officials, including Delaware County emergency manager Ed Truitt, reported no major problems from the weather.

Except for Bodkin's injury.

Bodkin said the lightning hit between his wrist and thumb. His sister and a cousin were inside the Ashland Avenue house at the time.

"What even happened?" Bodkin said he thought Monday, as he looked down at his bloody wrist. "It was shocking."

When Bodkin's friend realized lightning was the culprit, the boys ran back inside. They applied pressure to Bodkin's bleeding cut, which Bodkin said was not there before the strike.

Von Bergen was driving home. But she soon re-routed, heading to Crozer-Chester Medical Center when she got a call about the incident.

Bodkin said he was conscious the entire time. An initial report called the injury a lightning strike, and paramedics took him by ambulance to the Chester hospital. He was then transferred to Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Children's Hospital in Wilmington, where he spent Monday night.

Bodkin and Von Bergen were still there Tuesday afternoon, waiting for an orthopedic specialist to check Bodkin before he could be released.

A lightning strike mainly affects the nervous system, according to the Lightning Injury Research Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Side effects can include ringing in the ears, headaches, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, and other post-concussion-like symptoms.

Bodkin - a baseball, basketball, and soccer player who has suffered from concussions - said he felt a bit tired. Not too bad. Mostly, his hand just felt tingly.

"It's a little numb," Bodkin said. "It hurts a little when I move my thumb."

Bodkin said doctors told him to expect some muscle weakness. All his blood work, Von Bergen said, came out fine.

David Bodkin's brother, Dan, 16, was at home Tuesday, and he received a text from David in the morning.

It read: Happy to be alive.

Tuesday evening, Bodkin was home, relaxing with Parris, his birth mother, and a cousin in Glenolden.

Drinking strawberry Gatorade and watching TV, he could finally relax after a wild 24 hours.

A little before 6 p.m., the faint sound of thunder returned. More storms were coming.

But Bodkin was not worried.

"No, I'm not scared," he said. "I don't think I'll get struck twice."

1 in 1.9M

Odds of being struck by lightning

in any given year.

261

People killed by lightning in

the United States from 2006-13.

7

People killed by lightning

in Pennsylvania from 2006-13.

13

People killed by lightning

in New Jersey from 2006-13.

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