The lone survivor of the lightning strike that killed three folks outdoors the White Home was saved by quick-thinking Secret Service brokers — and her Dr. Martens boots, in line with her mother.
Californian scholar Amber Escudero-Kontostathis was struck final Thursday whereas elevating cash in Washington, DC, for refugees — although it was her 28th birthday.
Whereas three others had been killed within the strike — together with a fellow younger Californian — Escudero-Kontostathis was revived by brokers who raced to the scene with a defibrillator, her mother, Julie Escudero, advised the Ventura County Star.
“The Secret Service males saved her,” Escudero stated. “I’ve been looking for out their names so I can personally thank them. They revived her.”
In a collection of emotional Fb updates, Escudero detailed how docs imagine the lightning that struck her daughter “went by her toes and out her left arm.”
That doubtless meant her daughter was saved by the thick rubber “Airwair” soles on Dr. Martens’ boots absorbing a number of the affect, her mother speculated.
Escudero-Kontostathis — who was together with her husband, Achilles, in DC — has already left intensive care and brought her first steps unaided, stated her mother, who flew from California to be by her daughter’s aspect.
“The trauma physician got here up [Friday] and stated she’s an ‘absolute miracle,’” her mother advised the native outlet.
In her Fb posts, Escudero additionally detailed how her daughter “is actually blowing all of the docs away with the progress her physique is making.”
Nonetheless, she is struggling “insufferable” ache from a big burn on her abdomen that makes it really feel prefer it’s “on fireplace” — and is struggling crushing “survivor’s guilt” after studying the three others hit all died, her mother stated.
Escudero-Kontostathis had a Monday assembly scheduled with a trauma counselor.
And she or he has additionally “made the connection to the opposite three great individuals who handed,” her mother stated, referring to financial institution VP Brooks Lambertson, 29, in addition to James Mueller, 76, and Donna Mueller, 75, childhood sweethearts from Wisconsin celebrating their 56th marriage ceremony anniversary.
“She desires to achieve out to their households,” her mother stated Monday. “She cares a lot for others, will probably be laborious for her.”
Escudero-Kontostathis can also be anxious about lacking the beginning of her masters-degree course at John Hopkins on the finish of this month.
Escudero stated she was “past grateful and humbled” that associates had began a GoFundMe that as of Monday afternoon had raised greater than $40,000 to assist with medical prices.
“I actually fell to my knees once I noticed the GoFundMe web page. I actually haven’t any phrases!” she stated.
