Struck by lightning on the way to the dentist — and came out almost unscathed
Thomas Fahmy (24) left his home during a thunderstorm, walked toward his car — and then lightning struck him and he collapsed on the sidewalk, with the entire event documented by a security camera. Despite the strike, he did not lose consciousness, was released from the hospital the very next day — and the dentist even waived his cancellation fee: "The sensations throughout my body were ones I had never experienced before."
The chance of a person being struck by lightning in a given year is less than one in a million. The chance of it happening a few steps from the car, on the way to the dentist, and being documented by a doorbell camera — already sounds like a plot written specifically for TikTok. But for Thomas Fahmy from New York, it was a very real Thursday: a white flash appeared, his body dropped to the sidewalk, and the umbrella he was carrying almost disappeared. Less than a day later, he was already released from the hospital, without a single burn, with a lottery ticket in his hand and a note for the dentist explaining the missed appointment.
Fahmy, 24, an employee in the office of Republican Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, left his home on Staten Island last Thursday. It was around 4:30 PM, a thunderstorm was raging outside, and his car was waiting for him about five meters away. In the security camera footage of his neighbor, he is seen walking under an umbrella on the street, suddenly a blinding flash appears — and after it, he collapses to the ground almost at the same spot. Despite the force of the blow, Fahmy did not lose consciousness. According to him, the impact was felt first in the leg area, and then took over his body.
"The moment the lightning hit me, the sensations throughout my body were ones I had never experienced before. A kind of tingling, numbness, pain, and just burning," he told local media.
In the seconds after the fall, he had difficulty understanding what happened. His feet, he said, felt as if he were stepping on balloons, and every movement was accompanied by pain. Fahmy began to shout "Help". His neighbor, Stephanie Homan, heard him from the house, opened the door, and found him lying on the ground. She called emergency services and helped bring him to a safe place. From there, he was taken to the hospital, where he underwent a series of tests, his heart activity was monitored, and he remained under observation for the night.
The most surprising finding was what was not found: no visible burns, no serious organ damage, and no injury that prevented him from walking home the next day. The absence of scorch marks might seem almost impossible, but lightning strikes do not always look like in the movies. It is difficult to determine if Fahmy sustained a direct strike, a side flash from a nearby object, or a current that passed through the ground and reached his feet. Even a person without burns needs a medical examination, because a lightning strike can cause heart rhythm disturbances, neurological injuries, and muscle damage.
In Congresswoman Malliotakis's office, they breathed a sigh of relief. The legislator stated that she and her team are grateful that Fahmy is alive, and thanked the neighbor who came to his aid and the hospital staff. The dentist also contributed a small detail to the happy ending: he waived Fahmy's appointment cancellation fee. After his release, Fahmy did two things that suit a person who has just beaten a tiny probability: he went to church to thank God, and purchased a ticket for the Mega Lotto, where the grand prize stood at 160 million dollars. He did not take the jackpot, but said he received something else — a new sense of proportion. "I don't call it luck, but a blessing," he said.
Statistics and Safety
What is the chance of this happening to you too? How rare are fatal lightning strikes in Israel can be learned from World Health Organization data: in all the 26 years between 1998 and 2023, only two deaths were recorded in Israel. The first was Asher Hazut, 14, who was struck alongside four of his family members at Zikim Beach in 2019. The second was Yaakov "Kobi" Meshek, 47, who was killed in an agricultural field in Kibbutz HaOgen in 2023.
In the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 37 million lightning flashes strike the ground annually. The annual chance of a person being struck is less than one in a million, and almost 90% of those struck survive. Between 2006 and 2025, 517 lightning-related deaths were recorded in the country, an average of about 26 per year. Men are killed by lightning strikes at a rate four times higher than women, and two-thirds of deaths occur between noon and six in the evening — exactly in the window of hours when Fahmy went to his appointment.
The safety rule is simple: if you hear thunder, enter a closed building or a vehicle with a hard roof immediately. There is no safe place outside during a thunderstorm, and lightning can strike even at a distance of up to about 16 kilometers from the rain area. An umbrella does not provide protection, and a single tree can become an especially dangerous shelter. It is recommended to wait at least half an hour after the last thunder before going out again. And there is also a myth that should be debunked: a person struck by lightning is not "charged" with electricity, and it is permissible to touch them and provide first aid immediately.
In New York, lightning is a fairly regular guest. The Empire State Building, for example, is struck according to the CDC about 25 times a year. History also knows at least one person who made the statistics look unnecessary: Roy Sullivan, a park ranger from Virginia, survived seven lightning strikes between 1942 and 1977. The Guinness Book of World Records crowned him as the person who survived the highest number of lightning strikes, and he became known by the nickname "The Human Lightning Rod".
