Contributed Photo Travis Lamperski, (left) his father Richard Lamperski and wife Shelly Lamperski at a Father's Day celebration in 2008.
SEBASTIAN — Shelly Lamperski pounded on her husband's chest as their boat circled in the Indian River Lagoon just after a rogue lightning bolt struck him mid-afternoon Sunday.
She repeatedly said, "Don't leave me. Don't leave," according to family members. But Travis Lamperski did, for a while.
The jolt of electricity stopped his breathing and heart. It damaged an ear drum and a kidney. He turned pale. His eyes were closed.
Within minutes, he was put on a dock at Suzy's Tiki Bar and a bystander, Barb Milligan, a nurse from Sebastian, performed CPR until his pulse resumed.
Emergency personnel rushed the unconscious man to Sebastian River Medical Center. Then he was flown to Orlando Regional Medical Center.
His father, Richard Lamperski of Micco, and his wife followed in a car.
"It was long, silent trip," said the father, who was on the boat when the lightning struck.
The day had begun merrily with lots of chatter.
Shelly and Travis Lamperski were visiting from Pittsburgh, where he works as a chiropractor. And his father, of Micco, excitedly took them for an outing in his new boat, a 17-foot outboard.
They went to the Sebastian Inlet and ate lunch. Then they noticed storm clouds in the distance and decided to play it safe and head back to a dock by Suzy's Tiki Bar on Indian River Drive where Richard Lamperski works.
"We laughed about how we missed the storm," he said. In sight of the dock a single lightning bolt struck about 3 p.m.
The bolt hit 30 feet from Travis Lamperski and passed through the water. The boat was fiberglass. But the current went through the boat's motor, metal steering cables and into the wheel he held, instantly knocking him out.
His wife was in the front of the 17-foot boat at the time the lightning hit. When she turned around, her 34-year-old husband was just sitting motionless with his arms stretched outright, "like Jesus," his father said.
As his father recalled, Shelly Lamperski emotionally pleaded, "Don't leave me. I love you. We have a (18-month-old) daughter."
And she pounded his chest.
Each year lightning kills about 25 people in the United States and many more are severely injured, according to federal reports. And Central Florida is known as the nation's lightning capital.
Richard Lamperski remained level-headed. He voluntarily served in a combat role in the Vietnam War. He took the steering wheel of the outboard boat, which was going in circles. He gunned the engine and headed for dock at Suzy's Tiki Bar.
He kept yelling, "Call 911, call 911."
Initially people at the bar didn't hear the pleas.
The lighting hit about 100 yards from the bar, startling the 100 customers gathered there for customer appreciation day. Bartender Renee Francis screamed and jumped because of the loud crack that shook the air. But then she and the others settled down. They hadn't seen what had happened in the boat.
Finally Francis heard her co-workers yelling.
People rushed out and lifted Travis Lamperski onto the dock and Milligan began CPR. "She brought my son back to life." Richard Lamperski said, "He was dead. I am so grateful for what she did."
Travis Lamperski has regained most of his consciousness and his family hopes he will be released from the hospital Friday. But he has no memory of what happened, according to his family. All he recalls is being in a boat and then in Orlando.
He is joking "about how the lightning bolt gave him super powers," his father said.
And the father quips about naming his boat "Lucky Strike."
