A 69-year-old man caught in a severe thunderstorm while riding his e-bike was struck by lightning and suffered serious complications that could take his life.
“It was my survival instinct that saved me. My electrical system for the heart exploded. It was really the heart that swallowed the blow,” says Lavergne Martin, a resident of Saint-Antonin in Bas-Saint-Laurent, who was fitted with a pacemaker eight days later, which he will keep permanently.
On July 1st, like almost every day when the weather is nice, the pensioner set out for a hike of a few tens of kilometers on the roads and cycle paths of the MRC from Rivière-du-Loup.
“I went to Notre-Dame-du-Portage for a soft cream and on the way back the weather suddenly turned cloudy.”
So he decided to increase his speed to just over 30 km/h and take the Petit Témis path, which passes very close to his home.
But within minutes the sky turned black and thunderstorms swept across the area.
“Thunder, lightning and bang! “I was thrown off my bike,” explains the pensioner, who didn’t really understand what had just happened while he was lying in the ditch.
Nervously, he got back on his bike before realizing his battery was dead. “The battery was also in the field, about a meter from the bike. I swapped it out but it didn’t work and I drove off again.
Saved by his neighbors
At this point, Mr. Martin had no idea that the next few hours would be critical. When he got home, his neighbors who work in the health sector noticed that the usually talkative and smiling man was not in a normal condition.
“They thought I was weird and then I started to lose my sight,” he recalls, though he had certain parts of the story that needed telling. I had lost the card.
The good Samaritans finally decided to call the emergency services. “You saved my life. If I had been alone I might have died as we spoke.
In the hospital, the man, who worked as a delivery man for Molson for 36 years, remained under close surveillance in intensive care for six days before being transferred to Quebec for a pacemaker implantation.
The jackpot
Even though the doctors couldn’t 100% confirm that his heart complications were caused by lightning, they came to this obvious conclusion.
“The doctors were very fascinated by my case. They hadn’t really seen that before. Everyone came to see the guy who was struck by lightning. “No pranks, all my credit cards have been degaussed,” the chattering cyclist mentions.
Lavergne Martin says “he doesn’t see life the same way anymore,” but he’s kept his joking side. In addition, the one who resumed his regular activities made his friends laugh by telling them about a fellow citizen who had recently won two million in the lottery.
“We always say that the chance of winning the million is equal to the chance of being struck by lightning. Well, the rest of us had both the blitz and the jackpot,” he laughs. “But for me, what I’ve gained is an extension of my life,” concludes Mr. Martin, somewhat emotionally.
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