CHAIN REACTION

Teen Wearing Chain Necklace Struck by Lightning in Central Park

The boy was leaning against a tree that was hit by lightning during a thunderstorm.

A 15-year-old boy was hit by lightning Thursday after the tree he was leaning against in New York City’s Central Park was struck and the current transferred to a chain necklace he was wearing. The boy had taken shelter from a thunderstorm under the tree while his friends sat on the grass nearby, a witness told The New York Times. The force of the lightning knocked him to the ground. As he lay unmoving, his friends called frantically for help and tried to revive him. Fortunately, though, the boy survived, suffering only minor burns, a law enforcement official said. He was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and listed in stable condition. Lightning is among the leading causes of weather-related death in the U.S., with an average of 27 deaths per year between 2009 and 2018. Perhaps surprisingly, however, about 90 percent of people who are hit by lightning survive.