Lightning victim grateful for life

ST. GEORGE — Dane Zdunich is blown away looking at photos of himself lying critically injured after lightning struck him and a classmate outside a St. George high school just over a week ago.

School officials had immediately started administering CPR on 16-year-old Zdunich and his friend, Alex Lambson, 17, before they were rushed to nearby hospitals in critical condition and were put on life support for several hours. Their clothes were in ashes and many feared the two might not make it.

Yet despite the frightening incident, Zdunich was able to return home Wednesday into the welcoming arms of his family and friends — grateful to be alive.

"Right now I've got a few burns on my feet, a little scar on my face and my hair's a little burnt," Zdunich said. "It's just incredible how I've recovered. I'm a little weak and that's it."

His close friend and fellow lightning survivor, Lambson, remains in a hospital in Las Vegas.

Although he was ecstatic to be considered well enough to leave the hospital, which had started to make him stir crazy, Zdunich wished Lambson could have left with him.

"I just thought me being there was good for him, but they kicked me out, so I had to go," Zdunich said.

Despite his almost full recovery, Zdunich has almost no memory of Oct. 5, when he and Lambson were standing underneath a tree during a rain and lightning storm after school at Snow Canyon High School. The two students were waiting for a ride when the lightning hit — leaving the two boys near dead and the tree unscathed.

"We just must have been miserable from the rain that was coming in because we both just hate getting wet from the rain," Zdunich said. "Probably not the best idea in 20-20 hindsight to sit by a tall tree in a lightning storm."

e-mail: lgroves@desnews.com