Really, candles on the cake will be fine...

[Jim Richards]

...to celebrate his 50th birthday.


From The BostonChannel.com:

Lightning Strike Victim Home From Hospital
Wife Thought Scott O'Day 'Was Gone'

POSTED: 6:00 pm EDT June 22, 2008
UPDATED: 6:55 pm EDT June 22, 2008


COHASSET, Mass. -- A man returned home from the hospital Saturday evening after being struck by lightning while out for a walk on his 49th birthday.

NewsCenter 5’s Lynn Jolicoeur reported Scott O’Day, 49, of Cohasset, was walking with his wife, Tucker, and his dogs around 8 p.m. Friday at “The Spit” in Scituate, when they heard the thunder start rolling. They turned to walk back, and shortly after heard a loud “boom.”



“When I got struck I got knocked out of my shoes and was thrown 4 or 5 feet forward,” Scott O’Day said. “I landed on some rocks.”

Tucker O’Day held her husband until he regained consciousness minutes later.

"The visual I have is Scott flat on his stomach, blood around his face, staring straight ahead,” she said. “I thought he was gone.”

Scott O’Day said he lost feeling in his legs. He said if he had been walking alone he doesn’t think he would’ve survived.

His wife ran to find someone with a cell phone and they called 911.

Scott O’Day suffered scratches on his body, including a gash on his face, but he was home from the hospital within 24 hours.

“Makes you appreciate everything you do have. Watch the weather forecasts a little more closely,” said Tucker O’Day.

Another man was killed when he was struck by lightning in Haverhill on Friday.