{"id":7688,"date":"2025-06-23T01:30:44","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T01:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/?p=7688"},"modified":"2025-06-23T01:30:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T01:30:44","slug":"teen-hit-by-lightning-in-central-park-says-he-couldnt-move-talk-after-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/?p=7688","title":{"rendered":"Teen hit by lightning in Central Park says he couldn&#8217;t move, talk after strike"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Teen hit by lightning in Central Park says he couldn&#039;t move, talk after strike\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Kafv31jx4aY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A teenager who was\u00a0struck by lightning in Central Park\u00a0is recounting the terrifying and rare strike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8220;I&#8217;m just kind of locked in my body for a second&#8221;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yassin Khalifa can&#8217;t remember the moment he was struck by lightning, but he can still feel the pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;No one actually thinks that they&#8217;re gonna get hit by lightning,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 15-year-old was picnicking in Central Park with friends Thursday afternoon when a fast-moving storm rolled in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;So I suggest to my friends we should go hang by a tree for a second, and I lean up against the tree. Five seconds later, I am on the floor,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-1237.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7689\" srcset=\"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-1237.png 620w, https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-1237-300x169.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><em>A teen boy was struck by lightning in Central Park on June 19, 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lightning knocked him unconscious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I can see, but I can&#8217;t talk. I can&#8217;t move. So I&#8217;m just kind of locked in my body for a second until I get into the ambulance and I feel everyone trying to shake me,&#8221; Yassin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was hospitalized with second-degree burns covering his torso and legs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yassin&#8217;s sister, Reem Khalifa, and his mother, Khalida Khalifa, rushed to his side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;He was in pretty bad shape at first and in a lot of pain,&#8221; Reem said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I was so scared to lose him because it was looking very, very bad,&#8221; Khalida Khalifa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8220;We never learned about lightning&#8221; &nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Standing underneath a tree is the second leading cause of lightning strike deaths, according to the National Weather Service. But the Khalifa siblings say as city kids, they had no idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We learned about fire drills. We learned about lockdown drills. We know how to escape an active shooter in our schools, shelter in place. We never learned about lightning,&#8221; Reem said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The odds of being struck by lightning are less than 1 in 1 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-1238.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7690\" srcset=\"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-1238.png 620w, https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-1238-300x169.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Siblings Reem Khalifa (left) and Yassin Khalifa (right)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reem says Yassin&#8217;s survival brings a new appreciation for her younger brother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We were beefing about, like, $10 this week, and that&#8217;s why I&#8217;ve been annoyed at him, but that&#8217;s something so simple. It means nothing in hindsight of everything,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But even lightning can&#8217;t strike down the brother-sister dynamic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I&#8217;m kind of mad, though, because his curls stayed intact and mine don&#8217;t, and I haven&#8217;t been electrocuted,&#8221; Reem said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The family hopes Yassin can leave the hospital this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A teenager who was\u00a0struck by lightning in Central Park\u00a0is recounting the terrifying and rare strike. &#8220;I&#8217;m just kind of locked in my body for a second&#8221; Yassin Khalifa can&#8217;t remember the moment he was struck by lightning, but he can still feel the pain. &#8220;No one actually thinks that they&#8217;re gonna get hit by lightning,&#8221; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[972,807,973,216,974,801],"class_list":["post-7688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-central-park","tag-keynews","tag-lightning","tag-news","tag-strike","tag-topkeynews-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7692,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7688\/revisions\/7692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkeynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}