Boy, 6, dies weeks after lightning fatally struck his dad while they held hands
Tributes have poured in for a ‘sweet’ and ‘funny’ boy who died from injuries caused by a lightning strike which also killed his dad.
Grayson Boggs, 6, was holding hands with his dad Matthew, 34, as they walked home in Valley Mills, Texas, when a single bolt of lightning hit them.
The force of the strike knocked them off their feet and sent them face down onto the pavement, according to family members who witnessed the tragedy.
Grayson’s brother Elijah, 11, told local media: ‘I was really scared. I rolled Grayson over and he was kind of smiling a little bit.
‘I thought they were just joking, but when I rolled my dad over the middle of his head was bleeding and his face was already purple.’
Matthew was pronounced dead when emergency services arrived at the scene, while Grayson was found ‘unresponsive but breathing’ and was rushed to hospital.
While largely unharmed from the neck down, he was found to have suffered severe brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation.
He remained in hospital in critical condition, relying on a ventilator and experiencing repeated seizures, before succumbing to his injuries on Friday.
In a statement confirming the news, Matthew’s cousin, Stephanie Burris said: ‘Grayson went to be with our Lord and his father at 5:05am today.
‘Please pray for the family at this time. Fly high, sweet boy.’
An aunt of the boy later wrote on Facebook: ‘Words can’t describe this. You fought so hard through it all, now you’ll be able to rest my handsome funny little baby nephew.’
Matthew’s mother, Angela Boggs, said her son had been collecting Grayson from the school bus and his last words before the strike were ‘I love you buddy’.
She told local broadcaster KWTX: ‘I always took care of him, because he is the one God gave to me. Now my responsibility is to take care of my grandbabies.’
Deaths by lightning strike are exceptionally rare both in the US and worldwide, though they are more frequent in areas more prone to electrical storms such as America’s southeastern states.
Texas reported the second-highest number of lightning-related fatalities from 2006 to 2021, with 36 deaths, while Florida had the highest with 79.
Only five states – Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Washington – as well as the US Virgin Islands reported no lightning deaths in this time.
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