Wife Of Motorcyclist Who Survived Lightning Strike & Crash Says 'It's A Miracle'
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - A man who survived being struck by lightning while riding his motorcycle showed CBS4's Jennifer Brice the helmet that likely saved his life.
Eugene Villines, 31, was hit Friday while driving on Interstate 25 near 136th Avenue. He was still recovering in the hospital Monday.
Lightning strikes are common in Colorado -- so much so that the doctors at the University of Colorado Hospital say they see serious lightning injuries up to two to three times a month during certain seasons.
"I'm just thankful," Villines said. "It's one thing to survive a motorcycle crash, but to do it unconscious and crossing lanes of traffic after getting hit by lightning kind of tops it all off."
Villines doesn't remember being hit by lightning as he passed 136th Avenue on his motorcycle. He doesn't even remember crashing his bike on the highway.
"Next thing you know ... I woke up and somebody was over me and they were saying something like … the ambulance is coming," he said.
The Army National Guard member ended up with broken ribs, a punctured lung, along with an entry and exit would from the lightning strike.
Burn unit doctors at the UCH say they believe the bolt hit somewhere near Villines and then an arch of it hit him.
"If he had gotten a direct strike of lightning into his body, we've seen it several times where a patient, their heart completely stops, you would have to have CPR," Dr. Arek Wiktor said. "He may have not survived this."
Witnesses say they believe the lighting struck the bike or the concrete. But the fact that Villines survived it, and then a motorcycle crash, is nothing short of a miracle for his family.
"I think it's a miracle. I think he's blessed, we're blessed," Villines wife Katie Villines said.
"Obviously there's God above watching out for me, or somebody is up there watching -- maybe a few people," Eugene Villines said.
Friends have set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for his medical bills.