Packers fan was victim of Tampa lightning strike: 'I took one for the team'

Heather Boone

 Heather Boone was walking with her brother-in-law from Raymond James Stadium to her car after Sunday's game when she saw the skies darkening all around her.

"We could get hit by lightning," she joked.

Moments later, she was on the ground, and bleeding from her forehead.

Boone, 42, was one of several fans injured when lightning struck the parking lot area north of the stadium where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hosted the Green Bay Packers. Only about 20 feet from her car when it happened at just after 4 p.m. on Sunday, she was face-down on the gravel in an instant and wondering what had happened.

"I felt like I got shot in the back," she told Yahoo Sports after walking out of St. Joseph's Hospital here late on Sunday.

Jason Penny of the Tampa Fire Department said seven people were transported from the parking area to the hospital, and four or five others went on their own. The oldest victim, a man in his 70s, was "worse off" than the others, according to Penny, but conscious. There were no fatalities.

Boone received four stitches above her right eye. Her brother-in-law, Kevin Laing, was still being treated late on Sunday. "We were both just blown down," she said.

She called her experience "a brush with death," but also said she was a huge Packers fan and wanted Aaron Rodgers to know, "I took one for the team."

Adrian Vines, 44, was nearby when the lightning hit. "I heard a loud boom, and I was out."

Vines, who said he had a headache during the game, thought he had passed out. But then he saw his father-in-law, John Allen, on the ground next to him, and he knew something serious had taken place. He remembers people running at him to ask if he was OK, and being on the ground in the driving rain "for a long time."

Vines, from Richmond, Va., said he still felt dizzy hours after the strike, and his father-in-law is still unable to move his left leg. Vines gave him a hug and told him he loved him before getting into a taxi outside the hospital.

"I feel blessed," he said. "It could have been terrible." 

Boone felt the same sentiment, saying she wanted to give her 8-year-old daughter, Billie, a big hug.

"I'm a liver. I love life," she said. "This just gives me more zest for life."

When she got to her sister-in-law's rental car outside the hospital, after a slow walk in the rain, Boone reached into a cooler in the backseat, pulled out a flask of Fireball whisky, and took a swig.

"Here's to being alive," she said.