When Isaiah Cormier, 18, and his girlfriend Juliette set out for a weekend camping trip in Nederland, Colorado they never imagined it would lead to Isaiah dying and being brought back to life twice.
On Saturday, July 7, while the teens were enjoying their weekend, Isaiah was hit by lightning.
In the video, Juliette tells Denver 7:
“I saw a really bright flash of light. He was face-down on the ground.”
“I checked for breathing and I checked for a pulse, and I didn’t see either.”
A lightning spark can reach over five miles in length, raising the temperature of the air by as much as 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (27,700 Celsius). National Geographic says being hit by lightning is the leading weather-related cause of death and injury in the United States. Every 1 out of 10 people struck by lightning will die, while 7 out of 10 will suffer serious long-term effects.
Juliette called 911 and immediately began administering CPR on her boyfriend— a skill which she had learned only one month earlier.
“I was just like, ‘You cannot go yet, I have too many things I want to do with you. You’re not allowed to leave me this soon.'”
After one round of CPR, Juliette was relieved when Isaiah started gasping, but it didn’t take long for his breathing to stop once more. “He stopped breathing again, so I gave him a second round of CPR,” she told Denver 7. “After that, he was breathing and doing alright.”
Juliette’s quick thinking kept Isaiah alive until emergency respondents could arrive.
The teen was transported to the University of Colorado Health Burn Center, where Dr. Ann Wagner, the center’s director, later told EMS1:
“He wouldn’t have survived if she didn’t know CPR.”
Cardiac arrest is the number one cause of death associated with lightning strike. When someone is in cardiac arrest, their brain cells are starved of oxygen and death can occur within minutes. But, as the Harvard Health Blog explains, “doing CPR keeps blood circulating until trained and better-equipped first responders arrive on the scene to jump-start the heart back into a normal rhythm”— and that’s exactly what Juliette did for Isaiah.
It only took Isaiah a day and a half to recover in the hospital.
“I’m excited to spend the rest of the life she gave me with her.”
“It’s a miracle recovery,” Juliette gushed.
“His family started calling him Flash; everyone we talked to asked what his superpower was and when the next Marvel movie is coming out.”
Isaiah has a few sore muscles and an entry mark from where he was hit, but otherwise, he is okay. Like other people who are hit by lightning, he’s also exhibiting the telltale ‘fern burn’. “The little lines of electricity create a fern-like pattern,” he explained— but the markings are only temporary.
Since everything that has happened, the teens are now urging the public to learn CPR.
“If I hadn’t done that [learned CPR] a month ago, I’m not sure how it would have turned out,” Juliette said.”I think everyone should learn now. ”
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