Cameron Poimboeuf
Cameron Poimboeuf
The North Carolina teenager who was struck by lightning while playing Pokemon Go on the beach with a friend said "everything went black" right before the strike.

Cameron Poimboeuf, 15, was with a friend on Sand Key Beach, near Clearwater, on July 19, when a storm rolled in as the pair were engrossed in Pokemon Go, the location-based game app.

"It was just really dark, I was on my phone and everything went black," Poimboeuf, of Charlotte, North Carolina, told Tampa ABC affiliate WFTS-TV.

Poimboeuf said he was told he was struck by lightning in his back and through his leg.

"Everyone was standing there looking at me," Poimboeuf told WFTS. "I was trying to figure out if I was hurting or anything, but my body was pretty much numb."


The teenager was unresponsive for three days after the lightning strike and spent nearly one week in the ICU at a local hospital, reports WFTS. He was discharged from the hospital on Sunday.

"I am still a little bit dizzy, but it is a lot better," he said.

Poimboeuf's mother, Karen Poimboeuf, told WFTS her son's prognosis was initially bleak. She said three Good Samaritans on the beach and the rescue crew helped save her son's life.

"We were also told from the cardiologist it was the level of expert CPR that he got that made the difference," she said. "They did not give up after minutes of CPR, that they kept working and kept working and kept working."

Poimboeuf's friend, 18-year-old Jansen Tabor, was hit in the leg and is recovering.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.