Man struck by lightning defies death for fifth time
July 10, 2006
By: Beau Zimmer
Tampa, Florida-- Small burn marks on each elbow are about the only scars you can see on Ray Galushas body after surviving a direct strike, by a bolt of lightning.
Ray Galusha, Lightning Strike Survivor :
This is beyond anything I have ever felt. It actually cooks you from the inside. You feel you being cooked. You feel the sizzling, and you smell your flesh.
The 51 year old was waiting for a train to pass at this railroad crossing along US 41 in Riverview. Hed turned his car off and cracked the window, when suddenly everything turned white.
Ray Galusha, Lightning Strike Survivor :
The first thing when I got shocked, I tried to take a breath in, and I couldnt breath. I said, damn that must have killed me, because I couldnt feel anything
just a tingle of the body.
Blinded but still conscious, Galusha says he could only hear the train and railroad crossing bells.
Ray Galusha, Lightning Strike Survivor :
I thought I got fried
it had fried my heart or fried my lungs and I had a minute or two at best to get to where someone could help me.
The electrical jolt fried Galushas cell phone and the phones of two other motorists waiting at the crossing. Knowing he desperately needed medical attention, he did his best to drive home for help.
Ray Galusha, Lightning Strike Survivor:
I pulled in my front yard, I couldnt let go of my steering wheel. My muscles tensed up.
A friend at home called for help and Galusha was rushed to Tampa General Hospital where he remained in Intensive Care overnight.
Ray Galusha, Lightning Strike Survivor:
My tongue is swelling, both my joints feel like theyre on fire, and my back feels like someone hit me with a baseball bat.
Whats amazing, this was not Galushas first brush with death. He was shot during Vietnam, run over by a planes landing gear in the Navy, and was brought back to life after both a heart attack in 1996 and a stoke last year. Doctors are surprised he wasnt more seriously injured in the latest incident, but have released him from the hospital and say he should make a full recovery.
Submitted by Gwen
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