Sean’s Story: Student Survives Lightning Strike

Sean’s dad:  God didn’t put all these events in place on the front end for it not to work out on the back end.

I was flying home from a business trip and I was connecting through Chicago.  And it was when I landed in Chicago and the stewardess got on the microphone and said, “You may now take your – place your – take your phones and take them off airplane mode and deplaned,” and I checked my phone and I had a voice mail from one of the faculty advisors who’s on call at the University of Dayton that night asking me to give him a call that there was a, “Incident with Sean.”

Physician: It must have been about 7:00 in the evening.  And I get a call from Dr. Laura Gottron who is one of the ER doctors.  Kind of an unusual call because she said, “Hey, we just had a lightning strike in a parking lot at the University of Dayton and it’s a UD student.”

Sean’s dad:  I didn’t know whether that meant it was fatal right there.  I didn’t know whether that meant a couple of bumps and bruises and he’ll be fine.  I didn’t know how to react.

Nurse:  I had to call Sean’s mother to let her know that her son was in the emergency department with a lightning strike.

Physician:  Lightning strikes are not things that people often live to tell about.  So this was kind of an interesting situation and we had heard that he had CPR almost immediately because this had been witnessed.

Physician:  Just so happen that that bystander had taken CPR, I think, not 24 hours prior to this event.  And that’s probably what saved his life.

He was breathing and alive and was awake.  He wasn’t fully conscious but he at least was not to a point where we needed intubate him.

Physician’s Assistant:  We were then able to assess his burns and basically had involved most of his body, from his neck, anterior, chest, his back and his – all his extremities.

Physician’s Assistant:  Sean had a 32% total body surface area burn which was the majority superficial second degree and a small portion that was a third-degree burn.  32% is a pretty significant total body surface area for someone to sustain.

Sean’s dad: I was in a plane 10:30, 11:00 o’clock at night in a row all by myself and there are no lights on wondering whether I’d ever see Sean again. And at that point, I took out a piece of paper and I remember writing a letter to him and not knowing whether he’d ever see the letter or what have you.  And in that letter I was just talking about how based on some events that happened over the past few years with the – the growth of our faith and God as a family that we would be strong enough to make it through this.  And I walked in and I saw him there wrapped head to toe in an ACE bandage, I got to tell you, it was just a relief knowing that my son was there breathing.

Physician’s Assistant:  You have the emergency medicine staff here.  You have the only level one trauma center here in the Dayton region. You have the only burn center in the Dayton region altogether that can help with his care.

Sean’s dad:  I can’t imagine going through this with any better care team than the one that we had.  And I don’t say that lightly.  Dr. Perry was phenomenal. We needed somebody who is in control of the situation, somebody who we had confidence in that we could hand it over to him and that’s exactly what Dr. Perry did.  We felt tremendous comfort and confidence and believe that Sean is where he is now because of the decisions that he made.

Sean Ferguson:  I was – I was just overwhelmed with the fact that they were letting me go back to my hometown of Pittsburg.  It meant that I had a real fighting chance to overcome this thing.

Sean’s dad:  It was quite the site to see them load him on the helicopter and then slowly hover up and then take off into the horizon.  It was such a relief to see him on his way home and yet on the other hand it was the beginning of what I suspect it would be a long, long journey.

Sean Ferguson:  And I felt very, very scared because I didn’t sleep for those next three nights.  I was tired but the pain I was in just wasn’t allowing me to.

Sean’s dad:  Just as when we were at Miami Valley Hospital and he was breaking all types of marks and setting progress, it wasn’t expected.  They were telling us at Mercy, “We expected him to be in the ICU for at least three weeks with his condition.”  And at the three, four-day mark is when he actually met the requirements to go to a step down.

Physician’s Assistant:  His age was a big part of it. He’s young. And so, when you’re younger you’re able to bounce back from an injury like this much quicker than someone who’s older.  I think the fact that he got CPR right away was a big thing for him.  That meant that he had minimal downtime with regard to not having blood flow to his heart and his brain and his other vital organs.  Getting to the ER right away and getting burn resuscitation care right away I think was also a big part of it.

Sean Ferguson:  From the first day to the present time he said I’m going to fight this thing and I’m going to take it head-on and I’m going to walk again.  And sure enough, just a couple of weeks ago he threw the cane aside and he’s walking now without a cane.

Sean Ferguson:  The day I was discharged from the hospital, there was a rainbow above the parking lot at UD.  All these circumstances that have come together for me to be sitting here only four months later in this condition, you know, I have no doubt that God’s hand has had a direct impact on this situation.

Physician:  As a human being, doing my job as taking care of my neighbor, using the skills that I have been given by God and have developed to try to take care of my fellowmen when they have the need, I think that is personally fulfilling and rewarding.

Sean Ferguson:  When you think that life could have and should have been taken from you that night, it’s a very empowering feeling knowing that you’ve been given a second chance.