PLAIN CITY, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Lightning could have cost one 13-year-old his life had a DWR officer not been in the right place at the right time.
On Saturday’s opening day of dove hunt, Sergeant Mitch Lane sat in a trail parking lot in Plain City watching fast moving storms roll in. Two hunters running to their car caught his eye.
“I was watching them and I saw just a big flash and heard the simultaneous boom and those two individuals went right to the ground,” said Sgt. Lane. “It was like wow, ‘did I really just see that?’”
Lightning struck Oscar Garcia, 13, and his 25-year-old uncle, Andres.
“The older of the two was getting up or was up, but the younger of the two was not moving,” said Sgt. Lane. He said Oscar wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a pulse, so he began CPR. The officer has 16 years of CPR training, but he's never had to use it until now.
“I never thought in a million years it’d be a lightning strike, let alone one I just witnessed,” he said.
Within five minutes, Oscar started to breathe on his own. His other uncle, Rigo Berto is thankful Sgt. Lane just happened to be in that parking lot at that very moment. "I think it was just a lucky day because if that didn't happen I don't know what's going to happen,” said Berto.
Sgt. Lane himself still can't believe the timing of it all. “It is very fortunate that I happened to be right where I was,” he said.
The teen is recovering at Primary Children's Hospital and is expected to be okay. The 25-year-old suffered some injuries, but nothing serious.
