Family of lightning strike victims thank those who saved man’s life

TAYLORSVILLE – The family of a Taylorsville father and daughter who were injured by lightning during a church activity in Fillmore are praising the quick actions of people who were nearby.  They say those people kept the man alive until medics could get there.

Friends of the Robinsons say the girl is recovering at a surprisingly good pace.  She has a ruptured eardrum and has first-degree burns, along with a burn scar from her necklace. Noel Lee is a family friend, and she got an update from the girl’s mother.

“Her daughter is alert, awake, talking and smiling.  She’s a little sore from the burns,” Lee says.

The father will need to spend a significant amount of time in the hospital since he was actually hit by the bolt.

Lee says, “The dad is expected to recover.  They think, maybe, the lightning struck his head, directly.”

However, family members say things would have been very different had there not been people close who knew what to do.  Robinson family Spokesman Josh Halverson says his brother-in-law’s heart stopped beating for about five minutes.

“There were non-medical personnel that were part of our ward that were administering CPR that was keeping him alive,” he says.

Medics arrived quickly, and Halverson says they did a great job treating his brother-in-law.  However, without the aid of the others at the church activity, Halverson believes Robinson would have died.

“The leaders of the event identified the situation and cleared people out to stabilize folks.  They recognized there wasn’t a pulse.  They recognized they had to administer CPR,” he adds.

Other members of the Robinson’s ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints say many kids and adults witnessed what happened, and several of them are still traumatized by what they saw.  They expect the Church to provide counselors for anyone who needs them.