RIVERVIEW, Fla. — An 11-year-old boy who got struck by lightning last Thursday in Hillsborough County finally returned home after being in the hospital for days.
Levi Stock was struck by a bolt of lightning during a family fishing trip in Riverview. According to the child's pastor, Daniel Butson of Fishhawk Fellowship Church, Levi actually was knocked off the boat when the lightning bolt hit his lower back and went through his left foot.
Pastor Butson said the boy's father dove into the water after him, doing everything he could to make sure he didn’t lose his son.
After spending days in the ICU, Levi's family says he was finally moved to the main floor. He is also talking and has been up walking. In a recent photo shared with 10 Tampa Bay, Levi is standing in front of his home which is decorated with balloons and a "welcome home" banner.
"We watched a miracle from God as he has healed our sweet boy," the 11-year-old's father said in an update.
The family went on to thank everyone who has been praying for Levi.
"We want to thank each and every one of you for praying, they have been felt!" Levi's father said. "Your continued prayers for the pain in his legs to subside would be so appreciated."
Pastor Butson said the lightning strike turned a day on the boat into a nightmare.
“Some good Samaritans who saw this happen,” he said in an earlier statement. “They get Derek and Levi into their boat, and that’s where Derek begins to offer life-saving CPR…he was doing CPR and Derek described to me ‘Daniel, it was like it lasted an eternity. It might have been five or 10 minutes, but it felt like forever.”
Pastor Butson explained emergency responders arrived at the scene and found that Levi had a faint pulse. Crews rushed Levi to the hospital while his family sent out one request for the community…“please, pray.”
“We dropped everything, we started praying,” Butson said last week. “We let our whole church know to start praying. The community began to pray. People at the dock were praying…I know this was a story about the power of lightning, but it really ought to be a story about the power of prayer.”