They say lightning never strikes twice, but try telling that to Casey Wagner who says he survived being hit by two bolts on the same day last week.
Wagner was attending "Rednecks With Paychecks," an annual off-road event held in Saint Jo, Texas, over the weekend when storm clouds started rolling in. Wagner, 31, had taken shelter under a tree while waiting for a friend to return from the restroom when he saw sparks splintering off the tree trunk.
"I saw a big old flash and then I knew I was going down," said Wagner, who never lost consciousness throughout the ordeal. "I knew I was getting electrocuted. I thought I was dying."
But before he hit the ground, a second shock hit on Wagner's right work boot. The same ones he wears in his job as a rodeo clown.
The bolt shot up his leg, travelled through the side of his body and through his left arm.
"I felt like my thumb was blown off," he remembered. "It didn't feel like it was on my hand."
Wagner began yelling for help as he lay there paralyzed. A nurse, whose name Wagner believes is Susan or Sue, rushed to his aid and kept him calm until paramedics arrived.
"She kept telling me I'm going to be okay and to breathe and look at her and focus on her," said Wagner. "She's the one who got me through this thing."
He posted a Facebook update to try and track down his mystery saviour.
Astoundingly, Wagner escaped with only minor injuries, and was released from the hospital after spending only Saturday night in observation. Doctors told him he was "a miracle" and they had "never heard of anything like this."
Apart from being left with shortness of breath, sore muscles and feeling "weird," Wagner knows he's lucky to be alive.
Doctors also said the tingling sensation Wagner is feeling throughout his body should only last to next Friday or so.
The odds of being struck by lightning in any given year in the U.S., based on reported deaths and injuries, is 1 in 750,000, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
While Wagner's mother told him not to stand around trees when he was little, just in case lightning hit, he said he never believed it would happen to him.
"I was just trying to stay dry," he said, adding that the experience left him feeling pious.
"I've been given a second chance," he said. "I need to start going to church a lot more."
