'Really Scary:' 9-Year-Old Boy Struck by Lightning

A 9-year-old boy was reportedly doing homework on his couch when a lightning current went through his leg and threw him off the couch.

A bolt of lightning had struck a tree outside the living room window of the Stone Mountain residence on Monday evening, according to WGCL. The current from the lightning traveled through the ground, bounced off the couch and hit Deandre Connell’s leg.

The boy told WGCL he doesn’t know how he survived.

“It was really scary,” Deandre told the news station. “It started raining, and lightning was everywhere and it came through the window and struck my leg and I fell on the ground. Then I threw up everywhere and my leg started to hurt.”

Deandre’s mother, Rhea Connell said she saw the flash of lightning, heard the thunder and saw Deandre fall off the couch.

“The current went right through his leg,” Rhea Connell told WGCL. “He was lucky he didn’t get burnt. It hit the couch and bounced off and started going through his leg.”

In the United States, an average of 51 people are killed yearly by lightning, according to a bulletin released by the National Preparedness Community earlier this summer.

The bulletin also referred to the National Weather Service for lightning safety while indoors -- staying off corded phones, not touching electrical equipment, avoiding plumbing and staying away from windows and doors.

First responders stabilized Deandre. He was taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Egleston and released.

“I was thinking ‘how did I survive that?’” Deandre told WGCL.

>>Deandre Connell. Credit: Screenshot from CBS46