THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 27, 1996 TAG: 9608270270
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER AND CINDY CLAYTON, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 55 lines
Two cousins were seriously injured Monday afternoon when they were struck by lightning while sitting on the bench of a picnic table beneath a tree.
Michael ``Mikey'' Abrams, 14, and Matthew Holsey, 11, who live next door to each other in the 9400 block of 1st View St., were playing in Michael's back yard around 3:15 p.m. when they were struck during a fast-moving storm.
Both boys were taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where they were listed in critical condition Monday night. A third boy playing with the cousins was unharmed.
Gail Abrams, the grandmother of the injured boys, said she and her two daughters were sitting in her dining room, drinking coffee, when they heard a crack of thunder in the back yard.
``It cracked so loud,'' she said. ``It sounded like it hit something.''
Then they saw a flash of lightning, Abrams said.
``We heard the crash of lightning and saw a ball of fire,'' she said. ``It came right down on their heads.''
The family members ran outside, Abrams said, tearing through the screen door to get to the boys. They got down on their knees to try to revive the boys. ``They weren't breathing,'' she said. ``They just looked like they were dead.
``It threw them apart. . . and thekids fell to the ground.''
The force of the lightning threw Matthew against a nearby chain-link fence. Abrams said it did not appear that the gum tree the boys were beneath was struck.
While the women tried to help the boys, another grandson ran around the corner to a fire station for help, Abrams said.
Abrams and other family members tried to talk to both boys, but got a response only from Matthew.
``(Matthew's) hair was just like you took a torch to it,'' Abrams said. ``You could see his scalp.''
She said Matthew started to turn purple and his ears turned black. He was wearing earphones to a portable radio when he was struck.
Abrams said Matthew was undergoing a brain scan and could possibly suffer from hearing loss. Matthew, the more seriously injured, was transferred to Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters, said a spokeswoman for Sentara.
The two cousins are very close, Abrams said. They play basketball, football and other sports together in their back yards.
Abrams said she did not realize the boys were outside. Only minutes earlier, Matthew, who lives in the house with his grandmother and is in elementary school, had been in his room playing with his new hamster. Michael, a middle school student, had been next door at his home, playing with another friend.
``It's just unreal to think something like that could happen,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Michael Abrams, 14, and Matthew Holsey, 11, were in
critical condition Monday night.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT GENERAL LIGHTNING INJURIES by CNB