The family of a Palatka teenager struck by lightning while hunting Tuesday is praying for a miracle, a close family friend says.
7:27 AM EDT September 28, 2023First Coast News16-year-old Baylee Holbrook is in critical condition at UF Shands in Gainesville. The family says she suffered a lot of trauma from the lightning strike and doctors are waiting on test results to figure out how to move forward with treatment. Hundreds showed their support at a vigil Wednesday night. It was an emotional night of prayer and worship in the Palatka Jr-Sr High School gymnasium as hundreds gathered Wednesday night to pray for Baylee.
Baylee and her dad, Matthew Holbrook were hunting in a blind near Millican Road in Palatka Tuesday. While sitting in the woods, lightning struck a tree, hitting them and causing both to lose consciousness. The Putnam County Sheriff's Office says Matthew eventually came to and found his daughter unconscious and not breathing. He attempted CPR until first responders arrived. Baylee was taken to UF Shands in Gainesville in critical condition.
"It's a very rare occurrence, it truly is, it's not something you see and hear a lot about," close family friend Willie McKinnon said."You see car wrecks, you see all these other things, but this is a rare one." Close family friend and pastor Willie McKinnon says Baylee is a junior at Palatka Jr-Sr High School. She's a cheerleader and loves photography. But, he says her passion is hunting and the trip with her dad into the woods Tuesday, was one they took often.
"She loves to deer hunt, she loves to hog hunt, she loves to turkey hunt and she loves to gator hunt," McKinnon said."Hunting, fishing, she loves boating, she loves being in the woods.""She was the one on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings that was texting her peers here at the school, her peers, her loved ones: 'Hey, hope to see you at church,' hope to see you there because she always wanted to see people be better than who they were," McKinnon said.
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