Australian Kristoffer Green, 31, was terrified when struck by lightning in 2015. Years later, he says the situation gave him a new “power”: he could predict storms.
Green recalled the frightening moments he and his wife had as they made their way to Ipswich Medical Center in Queensland, Australia to search for a wasp sting that had injured the couple’s daughter.
Seeing dark clouds, he suspected that a violent storm would form soon, and under the umbrella asked his daughter to be careful.
At that moment, lightning struck the umbrella and went over Kristoffer’s body.
“The umbrella has a wooden handle, but the tip of my right index finger rested on the metal pole in the middle. It was like a blinding light and then I walked out. My wife said I just passed out,” Green told 9News.
He was taken to the hospital by his wife. According to doctors, her heart was racing like it was “going a million miles an hour.”
Though lucky to have survived the incident, Green was left with lasting psychological effects and began noticing sensations he had never felt before. In the days following the incident, he reported experiencing anxiety and noticing that his arm would not stop tingling when a storm was about to hit.
“A few years after the attack, my right arm was tingling where the lightning passed and starting to ache before a storm came. Sometimes it still does. I say to my wife, ‘There’s a storm coming.’ You can be sure, there’s going to be a storm a few hours later,” he said.