A 16-year-old Russian soccer player wearing a metal chain around his neck suffered serious injuries when lightning struck him on the pitch on July 4th.
A video going viral online shows Znamya Truda goalkeeper Ivan Zakborovsky getting zapped by electrostatic discharge in shocking footage.
The lightning struck him at the same moment he kicked the soccer ball. He is currently in critical condition.
His girlfriend Yelena told Podyem media: “He is in stable condition. He regained consciousness but due to a strong painful shock he had to be put back into a coma. His parents are at his bedside. He has a scar around his neck where the lightning hit his chain, and that his lung was damaged. He needs time to stabilize.”
Club general director Igor Mayorov said: “There was a clear sky, albeit overcast, but neither rain nor wind. If there was a thunderstorm, then we would not have been training.”
Zakborovsky was taken to hospital where doctors put him into an induced coma.
While he suffered severe burns, his club tweeted that his condition is stable and there is no “life-threat.”
“Everyone acted quickly, very professionally, the ambulance arrived in eight minutes,” added Mayorov. “Most likely he had a respiratory arrest, he received first aid, maybe because of this the child is alive.”
Mayorov added that the boy’s “recovery dynamics are positive.”
