Thomas Fahmy, a congressional staffer for Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, spoke out about surviving a direct lightning strike on Staten Island last Thursday.
Fahmy, who works out of Malliotakis’s Staten Island office, had been walking to a dentist appointment along Todt Avenue near Windsor Road in the Castleton Corners neighborhood when the bolt hit. He had been carrying an umbrella as the storms rolled through.
“I was nearly 15, 20 feet away from my car when I was struck by lightning,” Fahmy told WNBC.
The violent jolt sent him collapsing onto the pavement in the residential neighborhood. Fahmy remained conscious throughout and later described the sensation in detail.
“It was a very intense burning sensation, tingling, numbness, pain. Severe pain in both of my feet,” he said about the near-death experience.
Fahmy lay on the ground for a few moments before crying out for help. His calls reached neighbor Stefanie Homan, who had been inside her home when the booming strike occurred.
“I heard yelling, heard ‘help me, help me,’ so I ran to my door and saw him down here on the ground, so I got the phone and called 911,” Homan told WNBC.
Emergency responders rushed Fahmy to Northwell Staten Island University Hospital, where doctors evaluated him overnight. He was discharged the following day with no burn marks or serious injuries found.
“No burns. I had multiple body exams, no burns at all,” Fahmy told WABC. “I went on church Sunday to say thank you God.”
Malliotakis, 47, praised her staffer after the incident. “We are happy, grateful and relieved that Thomas, a valued member of our Staten Island office, is alive and well after being struck by lightning last week,” she said. “We appreciate the good Samaritan and medical staff at Staten Island University Hospital who helped him get emergency care.”
The odds of being struck by lightning are less than one in a million, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and about 90 percent of victims survive. Lightning hits the ground in the United States more than 37 million times annually. The record for most strikes survived belongs to Virginia man Roy Sullivan, who endured seven.
After his discharge, Fahmy tested whether his luck would hold. He purchased a Mega Millions lottery ticket on Saturday, but no one claimed the game’s $160 million jackpot Tuesday night, and his numbers did not come through.
The experience left Fahmy with a shifted perspective rather than doubled fortune.
“Just to appreciate life, smile and breathe fresh airs once in a while and don’t let life overwhelm you,” he said.
Fahmy continues working from Malliotakis’s Staten Island office as he processes the close call that could have ended differently without Homan’s quick response and the hospital’s emergency care.