Lightning Strikes Mom Holding 2-Year-Old

Kelly Bell and her son, Logan (being held by his father, Dan Bell) survived a lightning strike.

A New Hampshire mother and her 2-year-old son who were struck by lightning last week have lived to tell about the incident.

On Tuesday, Kelly Bell and her son Logan headed outside after a thunderstorm, but it turned out the weather wasn’t quite over. “I thought the thunder had passed, it had been 30 minutes since we’d seen anything, so we went outside to see the rain because we like to look at it,” Bell tells Yahoo Parenting. “I said ‘Hey Bubba, look at the rain,’ and then next thing I knew I woke up on the floor.”

Bell says the lightning struck a tree, and then traveled along a metal dog lead, which was connected from the tree to their porch. “We weren’t touching anything, just standing on the porch,” she says. “The lightning struck the tree, and traveled into the dog lead, which was attached to a nail under our porch. My hand was probably six to eight inches from the lead and the best we can guess is that the lightning traveled into my hand through my wedding ring.”

Kelly Bell standing next to the tree that was struck by lightning before the electricity traveled to strike Bell and her son. (Photo: Bill Gnade/Keene Sentinel)

Since Bell was holding Logan, he was affected too, although Bell bore the brunt of the impact. “He was on my right side and I was struck on my left,” she says.

Both mother and son suffered injuries: Logan has bruises and burns, while Bell was left deaf in one ear. “It may or may not be permanent damage,” she says. “There’s a hole that takes up about a third of my eardrum, so it’s a waiting game to see if my hearing will improve.”