Sheffield native struck by lightning

A Sheffield native is recovering in an Opelika hospital after lightning struck him in the chest Saturday.
Jake Blackstock, who turned 24 Sunday, was fishing in the Opelika area when the strike happened, his mother, Cheryl Blackstock, said. Doctors expect a full recovery, she said.
Jake Blackstock, an Auburn University graduate and wildlife biologist for the university’s School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, was at East Alabama Medical Center on Monday, his mother said. Doctors expected to be able to release him, depending on the latest lab results.
Cheryl Blackstock and her husband, Noah Blackstock, have been staying at the hospital with their son since the incident occurred. She said doctors told them their son is fortunate to have survived.
“They ran a lot of tests about his heart because he was directly hit in the chest,” she said. “They said if it had been 1-2 inches a little lower, it would have gotten his heart directly. We fully give God credit for protecting him and keeping him safe.”
She said Jake Blackstock told her it was raining, but not hard, when he was on his boat on a lake.
“The sky had gotten just a little bit dark,” Cheryl Blackstock said. “He never heard any thunder, never saw a flash of light or anything. The next thing he knew, he woke up in the middle of the boat. He doesn’t know how long he was unconscious.”
She said he called her while in the boat. “He told me he didn’t know what had happened, but something was wrong,” she said. “We live hours away in Sheffield, so you can imagine our panic.”
She is thankful he didn’t fall out of the boat. “He could have fallen in the water but landed in the boat.”
Jake Blackstock still has a great deal of back pain and also is hurting in his chest, Cheryl Blackstock said.
The hair on his chest was burned.
“Considering what could have been, he seems to be doing well,” she said. “All of his heart tests came back very good.”
Physicians did an electrocardiogram and blood work on Jake Blackstock. They also saw the streak and noticed his blood pressure, which usually runs low, was high, Cheryl Blackstock said.
“All of that told them it was a lightning strike,” she said.
Jake Blackstock doesn’t remember much about Saturday night and Sunday, his mother said Monday.
He was somewhat confused Sunday and kept asking if he was at Helen Keller Hospital in Sheffield. He had what doctors called “cardiac confusion,” which caused temporary short-term memory loss, but that condition seemed to be going away.
“He’s much more with it today,” she said. “His memory is much better.”
She said the lightning left a streak that runs down his trunk to his left hip, where the bolt left his body.

“He has a jagged mark, almost like a lightning bolt looks,” Cheryl Blackstock said.  From Times Daily