FORT WORTH, Texas — Two brothers are recovering at Cook Children's Medical Center after a lightning strike knocked both unconscious on Wednesday in south Fort Worth.
Jaden Alvarado, 13, and his brother Isaac Martinez, 7, were near a tree at a home on Iron Ridge Drive, just off Interstate 35W, when the tree was struck by lightning. Neighbors heard the loud thunder clap and rushed outside to find both boys on the ground.
The chaos was partly captured on home surveillance cameras.
"And when I ran it was exactly what I thought. I thought it was one of the boys, it was both of her boys laid out on the grass as if they'd been standing and just fallen over together," said neighbor Frances Wamack.
Both boys were rushed by ambulance to Cook Children's. On Thursday, in an interview with the media relations staff at the hospital and shared with WFAA, Jessica Martinez Alvarado agreed to talk about the ordeal.
"I thought I had lost my boys honestly. It's the worst feeling. I don't wish that on anyone," she said holding back tears while in the hospital room with her two boys. You can hear the boys in the background trying to console her, telling her they are going to be OK.
"I remember me and Isaac we were rough-housing and it went black and I woke up here," Jaden Alvarado said. "Apparently I died last night and came back to life."
His mom said the strike did briefly stop his heart.
"And to now, I thank God for every second that he didn't take my boys," Jessica Martinez Alvarado said.
The CDC says 73% of lightning deaths happen in June, July and August. The U.S. records as many as 28 lightning deaths every year. And most of those deaths happen in Texas, Florida, Colorado, North Carolina and Alabama.
"Fortunately very rare. But it does happen," said Taylor Louden, M.D., Medical Director, Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Cook Children's Medical Center. "So we do have to be aware especially in Texas where storms can come out of nowhere."
No one knows that better than a Keller teen named Jacob Brewer. Nearly three years ago he suffered a direct lightning strike while on vacation in Florida. The surge entered his chest and exited his right foot. He suffered extensive neurological injuries, had to endure multiple surgeries and is still working to regain full use of his legs.
His mom wanted to speak directly to the mom of the boys in Fort Worth.
"I just want her to know she's not alone," Barbara Brewer said. "There are other pediatric lightning victims and if she needs support or needs help we're here so we'd be glad to help."
Brewer is in the process of setting up a support group called "A Bolt of Hope" to be a clearing house of information and resources for pediatric lightning strike victims.
"Don't let their kids outside when it's thundering," Jessica Martinez Alvarado said, offering her own hard-earned advice. "I know it's like a one-in-a-million chance but you never know you might be that one. It was two for me."
Doctors at Cook Children's said the brothers in Fort Worth don't appear to have suffered any permanent injuries but that they will be monitored for potential neurological impacts just in case.
An online fundraising campaign has been set up to help the family with hospital expenses.