HOUSTON — Alex Coreas says he doesn’t remember a thing that happened last Thursday when he was walking his dogs in a north Houston park.
He saw no tunnels. No white lights. No singing angels.
“As soon as I walked on that concrete, out of nowhere, the lightning just struck right there next to me,” Alex Coreas said. “I don’t remember none of that, don’t recall none of that.”
Coreas says a fast-moving storm was rolling in toward the park and he began to make his way to his truck with his three dogs.
Surveillance video shows what happens next.
Coreas is struck by a bolt of lightning then faceplants into the concrete parking lot.
His heart stopped beating.
Luckily, someone had seen what happened, and began to perform CPR on Coreas.
The next thing he remembers is while he is in the Life Flight helicopter.
“I’m just thinking I’m dreaming,” Coreas said. “I was like, ‘what happened.’ ‘he was like, you got struck by lightning man.’ I was like I didn’t know if he was joking or what. Then I said I wanted to go to sleep — and he said don’t go to sleep — you might not wake up.”
As the days passed he began to put together the pieces.
The lightning struck right next to me but I guess bounced off the concrete and ended up hitting my foot,” Coreas said. “It actually tore up my shoe, melted into my sock, my sock got melted with the shoe — I’ve got the mark on my foot, and it traveled all the way up through my body. I’ve got markings here, all the way through my chest here, and it ended up coming through my head and out my ear. It damaged my right ear, I can’t hear.”
Coreas says other that his hearing, he is doing well, however he is still using a cane to get around.
The lightning strike survivor says he’ll be staying away from storms for a while.
“They do say if you’ve ever been struck by lightning you’ve got more of a chance of being struck again,”Coreas said. “I don’t know if it’s true or not but I don’t want to find out.”
Coreas’ family has established a GoFundMe page to help pay for his extensive medical bills.
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