For a second time in less than two months, a 19-year-old male was struck by lightning on Sunday evening and serious injured. This time, the victim is an IDF Soldier. The incident occurred between Kibbutz Ein HaShofet and Kibbutz Ramat HaShofet in northern Israel.

The man was with a group of friends in an open field when he was hit by lightning, sustaining severe burns. His friends immediately administered emergency treatment and called Magen David Adom who evacuated him – unconscious and on a respirator – to the Ramban Medical Center in Haifa.

The victim was transported to the trauma unit of Rambam Medical Center in Haifa sedated and intubated, suffering from serious burns over his entire body. A friend explained it was raining very hard, then he saw the lightning and then he found his friend on the ground.

“The young man’s life was saved thanks to the treatment of his friends in the field, who cleared his air passages,” Dr. Shachar Grunner of Rambam said.

A Ramban spokesperson stated on Monday morning that the man, who is hospitalized in the intensive care unit, is still in serious condition but stable. He has regained partial consciousness and is responding to stimuli.

On Chol Hamoed Sukkos, Asher Hazut Z”L, 14, was killed in a lightning strike during a family outing near Zikim Beach. He was in serious condition and died in Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. His death was the first death from lightning in Israel since 2007, when a fisherman was killed in Israel’s north, off the coast.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)