‘I Brought Him Back From Death’: Couple Struck By Lightning During Hike, Woman Saves Boyfriend's Life Twice With CPR

A Chicago woman revived her boyfriend twice with CPR after both were struck by lightning during a hike. Rescue crews took 50 minutes to reach them.

A Chicago woman revived her boyfriend twice with CPR after both were struck by lightning in the Kettle Moraine State Forest. Rescue crews took 50 minutes to reach them on foot after she called 911.

Nick Broderick had surprised his then-girlfriend Eva Broderick with a 10-mile hike at the forest.

"It was a really beautiful hike for, I would say, most of it up until the last bit," Eva Broderick said. Despite being struck herself, she performed CPR until help arrived on foot

They were a little more than two miles from their car when a sudden storm hit. "The rain just kept getting heavier and heavier as a really big rainstorm just suddenly hit us out of nowhere," Nick Broderick said.

With nowhere to take shelter, they kept moving forward. The storm grew worse, and the thunder was so loud that Eva grew worried. "She turned around and turned to me and said, 'Nick, what if we get struck by lightning?'" Nick Broderick said.

Minutes later, the last thing Nick remembers from that day was hearing a boom. Firefighters said the tree next to them took a direct lightning hit, and the couple was struck by the ground current.

"All I remember was being, like, curled in a fetal position, like, with my hands over my ears, like, screaming, I think, and feeling what can only be described as electricity in my feet," Eva Broderick said.

A woman saved her boyfriend's life after they both got struck by lightning.

She managed to restart his heart twice, giving him constant CPR through the 50 minutes it took rescuers to find them. She fought through the pain and ultimately saved her man. pic.twitter.com/OBpRSF1nSP

— Pubity (@pubity) October 19, 2026

"I was curled into Nick, and I looked over, and he was laying on his back, like, his eyes were half open, glazed over, and he was blue and, like, not breathing," she added.

Eva called 911 and immediately started CPR. But she couldn't tell rescue crews where they were because the cell signal kept dropping.

"It's pinging out a mile, a mile and a half into the forest area and it's not very specific," Palmyra Fire Rescue Asst. Chief Dan Schiller said.

She couldn't remember where they had entered the forest or which path they were on. When crews reached the trailhead, there were three path options.

"We just took a best guess and tried to send people everywhere we could," Schiller said.

It took 50 minutes from the 911 call for crews to reach them, and they could only get there on foot. Eva, who had also been struck by lightning, had to revive Nick twice in that time.

"That is not something that normally happens," Schiller said. "This is pretty extraordinary on its own."

Nick was taken to a hospital, where he spent three days recovering. He has some hearing loss in one ear and tendon issues from the strike. After Nick was released from the hospital, he proposed to Eva. She said yes.

"I've made the joke quite a few times that he can't leave me. I brought him back from death, so he's kind of stuck with me," Eva Broderick said.

Eva will be honoured with the Lifesavers Award at the Palmyra Fire Department in two weeks for her bravery.