Lightning
Lightning flashes in the night sky over South London Getty

A New York man has described the terrifying moment he was struck by lightning while walking to a dentist appointment in Staten Island.

Thomas Fahmy was reportedly walking along a neighbourhood sidewalk when a powerful lightning strike suddenly hit nearby. The incident was captured by a doorbell camera, with footage later attracting widespread attention online.

Fahmy said the strike caused an immediate and overwhelming physical reaction. He described experiencing sensations he had never felt before as electricity appeared to course through his body.

Speaking about the incident, Fahmy said the first moments after the strike were particularly frightening.

'Once the lightning bolt struck me, the initial sensations that I had throughout my whole body were like completely unprecedented, tingling, numbness, pain, just I feel this burning sensation,' he said.

Fahmy was subsequently taken to a medical facility for urgent assessment. Doctors carried out multiple examinations to determine whether the electrical discharge had caused serious injuries.

Despite the frightening circumstances, Fahmy said the examinations found no external burns or lasting physical trauma.

'No burns. I had multiple body exams, no burns at all,' Fahmy said.

The experience also appeared to have a profound personal impact on him. Fahmy later attended church to express his gratitude for surviving what could have been a fatal incident.

'I went on church Sunday to say thank you, God,' he said.

The footage has since circulated online, prompting viewers to speculate about exactly how Fahmy managed to survive the strike.

Viewers Reacted to How Fahmy Survived

Some viewers suggested that Fahmy may not have been struck by the full force of a lightning channel directly.

'He's alive because the lightning struck the tree and traveled down through it to the ground. he was just very close and probably experienced quite a punch and electrostatic fields nearby. but he lived cause the bolt itself didn't travel through him directly,' one viewer said.

Another commenter highlighted the enormous electrical forces associated with lightning.

'I'm an electrician, that was over a million volts and hundreds of thousands of amps. How anyone is able to walk away from s*** like that may forever be beyond my capacity for understanding,' they said.

How Likely Is It To Be Struck by Lightning?

While online speculation about the precise mechanism remains unverified, lightning can injure people through several pathways. A person does not necessarily need to be struck by the main lightning channel to suffer harm. Nearby strikes can send electrical current through the ground or cause electricity to travel from an object to a nearby person.

Being struck by lightning remains a rare event. In the US, the National Weather Service estimates that an individual has roughly a one-in-a-million chance of being struck by lightning in a given year, although the risk varies depending on location, weather conditions and how much time a person spends outdoors.

Most lightning-related injuries are survivable, but a strike can cause cardiac arrest, neurological injuries, burns and other serious complications.

Fahmy's experience therefore stands out not simply because he survived a lightning-related incident, but because he reportedly emerged without visible burns or lasting physical trauma.

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