After lightning strikes teen group, one faces monthslong recovery

SALT LAKE CITY — All of the teens hospitalized after being shocked by a lightning strike have been released from the hospital.

Fourteen-year-old Kaileigh Saling, the last of the hospitalized teens, was sent home Sunday night.

Kaleigh said the lightning strike hit just inches from where she was walking.

“I heard this huge boom and my ears started ringing and I just went up and went down all at the same time,” Kaileigh said.

On June 27, 50 teens were shocked by lightning in eastern Sevier County. Seven of the teens were hospitalized, including two that were flown to the hospital.

The teens were on a trek activity organized by their local stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Several teens hospitalized after being shocked by lightning strike in central Utah

The impact of the lightning strike

The force was so strong Kaleigh said she was thrown into the air.

“As I was on the ground it felt like I was being coddled in like a cloud or a pillow,” Kaileigh said. “And they lifted my head and I just felt like bricks and gravity was just being thrown on top of me.”

“She was next to the person holding the umbrella, where the lightning struck,” said Rachel Saling, Kaileigh’s mom.

Saling thinks the current passed through an umbrella, held by a teenage boy walking next to Kaileigh.

“(The umbrella) flew out of his hand,” Kaileigh added.

Teen knocked unconscious after lightning strike, grateful to be alive

While the boy holding the umbrella was also shocked, the two teens walking on either side of him, Kaileigh and Bo Chapman, suffered more serious injuries and were flown to the hospital, according to Kaileigh.

“The boy with the umbrella would’ve been right over here because her right side was the one that was affected,” Rachel Saling said. “(Bo) was on his other side.”

Road to recovery

Kaileigh was initially flown to Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital in Lehi but later transferred to the Salt Lake City campus where her room was next to Bo Chapman, 14.

Kaileigh suffered a concussion and fractured her back, an “L5-S1 back injury” according to her mother. The right side of Kaileigh’s body is still reeling from the electrical shock.

“It still feels like my body is being pressed against a furnace,” Kaileigh said. “If you touch (my arm), it feels like the arm is being thrown underneath all the coal and fire and it just stings while it has a tingly sensation around where it burns. It feels like I have tight, tight, tingly wristbands on my wrist, elbow, and shoulder… it hurts really bad.”

Kaileigh said it’s difficult to walk, because her right leg has a tingling and numb sensation, making it hard to maintain her balance.

Doctors tell Kaileigh it will be months before she fully recovers, and she will need physical and occupational therapy.

According to Kaileigh, doctors think she wasn’t struck by the lightning bolt because she doesn’t have entry or exit burn wounds on her body.

Rachel and Kaileigh Saling said they’re grateful everyone survived what could have been a deadly incident.

“What happened was more of a blessing,” Kaileigh said. “It was such a big thunderstorm, there was lightning all over the place… and it didn’t just hit one person and you know kill that one person, we all just kind of got a little sting and we were all OK.”

“I definitely think that they were watched over,” Rachel Saling added.

Kaileigh is praying for one more miracle — to recover before school starts so she can play sports.