A child born in Florida after his pregnant mother was struck by lightning has died.
Owen Davidson died July 12, about two weeks after 26-year-old Meghan Davidson was struck by lightning while she was walking outside in Fort Myers with her mother, The Associated Press reported.
The mother was taken to a nearby hospital, and doctors prematurely delivered the child.
Davidson was about a week away from giving birth when she was struck by lightning.
The child’s death was confirmed by the Lee County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Davidson has since been released from the hospital and is now recovering.
The death of the child is the sixth this year in Florida related to lightning strikes.
A 911 call was released, with the caller saying they couldn’t tell if Davidson was breathing.
“We do not know how the fetus is affected by lightning, but we have a special case here in that the child’s injury may not have been from lightning, but from a lack of oxygen as the mother was in cardiac arrest,” Mary Ann Cooper, a doctor who handles lightning-related injuries, told the Palm Beach Post in early July. “It depends on how long the mother was in cardiac arrest and how long it took to deliver the child.”
She was struck on June 29, and while she was initially unresponsive, Davidson was able to get her pulse back.
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