When a tropical storm broke out over her home, Carly Electric, 29, watched the relentless flashes of forked lightning that lit the sky.
Then, she what many would: she pulled out her phone to capture the spectacle – a decision that would change her life forever.
‘I was outside taking a video straight up into the sky of the incredible lightning happening directly over the top of me,’ she recalls.
‘I was in awe, and it didn’t cross my mind once about my safety. There was a really loud bang, and I was blinded by light in my right eye.
‘In that instant, I realised that I should probably run inside and get out of the lightning storm.’
What Carly didn’t realise was that she had been indirectly hit by lightning.
Within minutes, her body started to suffer the effects of keraunoparalysis: a rare condition that causes the body to become temporarily paralysed.
Lightning bolts that strike close enough to a person can ‘jump’ to them.The electrical energy travels through the ground towards them, or enters the body via conductive elements like metal pipes or wires.
This can then disrupt the nervous system and interfere with the brain’s messages to the rest of the body.
Carly doesn’t have a clear memory of the exact moment of the lightning strike, but says she was able to walk back inside normally before the effects of being struck by lightning – a one in a million phenomenon –took effect.
‘I continued to watch the storm from inside, then got cosy on the couch and put on a movie,’ she recalls. ‘About 20 minutes into the movie, I turned to my flatmate and let them know that I was starting to feel really weird.’
The former designer, who lives in Southeast Queensland in Australia, felt goosebumps form all over her body and soon experienced a ‘euphoric’ sensation. Then followed waves of fever and nausea that left her in a state of panic.
‘I had a look at myself in the mirror because I felt like I had been drugged,’ she recalls. ‘My pupils were dilated, and I was feeling really floaty and euphoric. I knew that something wasn’t right.
‘After another 20 minutes, I could no longer move my arms or my legs, and I asked my flatmate to call an ambulance. When the ambulance arrived, only a few minutes later, my feet and hands had gone blue.
‘By the time I arrived at the hospital, I could barely speak and my heart rate and breathing had dropped. My speech was so slurred and really slow, I was struggling to get any words out. So not only was my body now completely paralysed with no feeling whatsoever, I ended up losing all speech.
‘All I could do was swallow and gulp air. I had lost control in my face muscles, with the right-hand side of my face becoming droopy too. I remember being so scared and wondering if I would ever be normal again.”
Carly’s condition stumped the medical experts at the hospital who initially feared she was experiencing a stroke.
After performing a range of tests, they noted there was a neurological component to her condition and made the diagnosis of keraunoparalysis – also known as lightning paralysis.
As well as temporary paralysis, the condition causes numbness, tingling, or weakness in the limbs, while muscle weakness or delayed reflexes can linger for hours, or weeks after the paralysis lifts.
‘I was fully paralysed for about nine hours, but fully conscious,’ Carly says of her experience. ‘I slowly started to be able to wriggle my toes and fingers. I could feel warmness come back in my limbs. I stayed in hospital for a couple of days and then had bed rest for two weeks. In those two weeks, my speech was still quite slow and slurred. My body was weak, and I slept a lot.’
For four months, Carly continued to experience fatigue and noticed a delay in her response time. And now, 12 months on, she is still feeling the consequences of her brush with lightning.
‘My pupils are now a different colour,’ she says. ‘And I have a small area on the top head that is really sensitive to touch. I can’t brush my hair in that area, and it often becomes hot.’
Carly also explained that, during her time in the hospital, her Electric name caused a point of amusement for everyone.
‘My nickname has been Carly Electric since I was a teenager, it’s the only name I’ve really ever gone by,’ she says. ‘I have multiple lightning bolt tattoos and also the word “Electric” tattooed on me twice. The doctors found this quite amusing.
‘I’ve always joked that it would be really ironic if I was struck by lightning! But now I joke that the lightning strike has made me lucky. I’ve had the most incredible year and really good things have come my way since that day.’
As well as being a comedian, podcaster, writer and horse racing expert, Carly creates content for OnlyFans and works as an escort – with her experience proving to be a thrilling conversation point with clients.
The proud sex worker says: ‘I’m fortunate that getting struck by lightning didn’t negatively impact my work. If anything, my clients love hearing my story. It’s quite a crazy story to tell and just glad I survived it.’
Carly hopes she can ride this current of positivity to bring new success in 2025. ‘I won three Australian Adult Industry Awards in 2024 and I host a popular podcast called Girlfriend For Hire,’ she reveals.
‘I am debuting my stand-up comedy show, titled In Carly Electric’s Box, at the Adelaide Fringe Festival at the start of 2025. I’m then planning to continue to tour around Australia as a sex worker, while hopefully taking my comedy show to the Melbourne and Sydney comedy festivals, publishing a novel and finishing writing a dark comedy TV series I’m developing.’
The busy model does admit she won’t be running outdoors to photograph thunderstorms in the future.
‘I’ve become very aware when lightning is around,’ she confesses. ‘I’ve always loved storms and especially lightning. But I have come to learn I’m now more susceptible to potentially being struck again or electrocuting myself.’
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