Despite being knocked unconscious, having hair burned off, damaging his hearing and possibly his heart, lightning victim Lonnie Boyd is glad to be able to party.
By KELLY VIRELLA
Published August 31, 2003
MADEIRA BEACH - Lonnie Boyd got hit by lightning Friday evening. Saturday, he was calling himself Flash Man and planning to get a lightning bolt tattoo on his right forearm.
Other reminders of the strike are a patch of fried hair, a burned face, two burst eardrums and possible heart damage.
His heart will probably be fine, said Boyd, 50. But he has permanently lost at least 40 percent of his hearing.
Still, said the Colorado Springs, Colo., resident, "If it blew my ears off my head, I'd still be happy to be alive."
Saturday afternoon, Boyd kicked back on a couch with his friend Bruce Coil, who got a mild shock from the bolt, sipped a cold Corona and talked about the tattoo.
"It'll have the date and the time on it and it'll say Flash Man," he said.
Boyd and Coil, 47, of Kenneth City got struck Friday evening when they were returning from a fishing trip in Coil's 19-foot boat. The men had left the gulf and passed under the Bayway Bridge on the Intracoastal Waterway when the lightning struck Boyd's head.
They were both holding the boat windshield and the bolt bounced from Boyd to Coil, without seriously injuring Coil.
Saturday evening they were at a party, giddy that they had survived.
"If he wasn't standing next to me, the bolt probably would have blown up my head," Boyd said.
"Well, if he tries to sue me, my attorney will be calling him," Coil said.
Fifty to 60 people were at the party at a Madeira Beach house. The event had been planned in Boyd's honor weeks ago.
One partier walked by and said "Zzzzzzz!"
"Get away from me!" Boyd said. "Get away!"
Boyd grew up in St. Petersburg but hadn't been to the Tampa Bay area in eight years, since his stepfather, Edward Frank Hockl, died. His current visit happened to coincide with his mother, Phyllis Hockl's, hospitalization.
She was bitten by a brown recluse spider. She was released on Thursday, the night Boyd arrived, he said.
If that and the lightning bolt were bad luck, Boyd says it has definitely changed.
His wife and three children will get their father back when he goes home next week. He doesn't have a firm departure date because he has to go back to the doctor Tuesday, and he may need more treatment.
"If you guys ever want to go out fishing, go fishing with us," he chuckled. "The chances of us getting struck twice are rather slim."
