Boy, 9, suffers cardiac arrest after being struck by lightning on Sydney beach
A nine-year-old boy remains in a critical condition after being struck by lightning while swimming at a beach south of Sydney.
New South Wales Ambulance told Yahoo News Australia that the child immediately went into cardiac arrest just before 5.30pm on Thursday at Barrack Point in Warilla, near Shellharbur, south of Wollongong.
Surf life savers initiated CPR until paramedics arrived and took over. They were able to resuscitate the boy before he was rushed to the Children’s Hospital at Westmead with burns to his chest.
The hospital told Yahoo News Australia on Friday morning that the child was still in a critical but stable condition.
Local doctor rushed to boy's aid
Further details of the heart stopping incident have since been revealed with a witness saying they were taking photos when lightning suddenly struck.
“I turned around, I saw the kid and the parents, they were crying and holding [the child],” they told Seven News.
While another witness described the noise of the boy being struck to Nine News as “massive.”
Fortunately, a local doctor was on the beach at the same time and jumped into help, assisting paramedics with CPR.
“When the ambulance officers arrived, they continued to do resuscitation on the young boy and got a heartbeat back and also got his breathing back,” Intensive care paramedic Terry Morrow told Sunrise on Friday.
While a helicopter was dispatched to rush the child to hospital, Mr Morrow said severe weather conditions prevented an air lift. Instead the nine-year-old was taken by an intensive care ambulance to Westmead.
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“We tried to get the helicopter to come from the base over to the beach, however due to the inclement weather at the time, there were lightning strikes and thunder and sudden downpour of rain, they were unable to do that.”
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