Florida woman shares road to recovery after she ‘died’ from lightning strike

Rebecca Soto said she just wanted to beat the rain when she took her dog for a walk outside of her Lake Nona home back in August. Little did she know that choice would nearly end her life. After she stepped outside, her husband said he heard a loud noise. “It set the alarms off in our apartment,” Lauro Soto said. When he went outside, he said he found her on the ground. “I knew she was unresponsive because of the way she was laying face down and when I flipped her over, I called to her and nothing,” he said. Lauro said he started doing CPR and called 911. When talking to first responders on the phone, he said strangers stepped in to help. “I had never met these people in my life, they just stopped and helped do CPR while I was trying to talk to paramedics,” Lauro said. When an ambulance took his wife to the hospital, another stranger drove him to the emergency room. Over the next week, Lauro said doctors did a lot of tests on his wife. “They told us obviously there is not a lot of data on these types of incidents. They have had incidents where people will get struck by lightning and it’s obviously fatal, other times they will just pop right back up and go back to whatever they were doing,” Lauro Soto said. Rebecca Soto didn’t pop right back up, but two and a half months after the strike, she is doing better. She said at first she was sleeping nearly 20 hours a day. Now her sleep schedule is closer to normal, but she is still being patient with herself. “I get tired a little easier now,” Rebecca Soto said. “So, I try to take things slow. Listen to my body. I joke with my friends, ‘I have a two-activity-per-day limit now.’ If I have work and an appointment then that’s it for the day. So just taking things slow.” To hear more about Rebecca’s road to recovery check out Talk to Tom. You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch anytime on News 6+. The couple also has a GoFundMe to help with the cost of Rebecca’s recovery if you would like to contribute.