26 August 2022, Brandenburg, Sieversdorf: Lightning from a thunderstorm shines over the landscape. Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa (Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images)
A New Jersey man is recovering after lightning struck him while on work duty. Eric Baumgartner, 39, was jolted as he repainted lines on a middle school soccer field.
Baumgartner is a Woodbridge public works employee who was working at Iselin Middle School at around noon Wednesday (June 14). He was attempting to complete the paint job before the impending rain. All of a sudden, a single bot hit Eric.
Thankfully, an EMT-certified police officer who was stationed nearby stepped in to help Eric. Robert “RJ” McPartland, a Woodbridge police officer, reportedly arrived on the scene minutes after Eric’s employees called 911 for help.
Once on the scene, the officer administered chest compressions to Eric, who was “unresponsive and without a pulse.” Soon after, Eric’s pulse returned, and he reportedly remained conscious while being taken to the hospital.
“We were able to see, you know, some burn marks appeared on his hands, so that’s how we were kind of able to determine what happened, and we knew that he just needed to, you know, start compressions to get his heart going again,” Robert McPartland said.
McPartland has been on the police force for three years.
Eric is said to be in “stable condition” at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
However, Eric’s friend, Ray Deliman, told CBS New York that Eric “remembers doing his job and then remembers waking up in the ambulance.” He reportedly has “no idea what happened.”
