{"id":505743,"date":"2026-02-26T17:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/505743\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T17:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:02:11","slug":"like-being-stabbed-with-1000-needles-georgia-rizzi-describes-freak-ordeal-after-being-struck-by-lightning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/505743\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Like being stabbed with 1000 needles\u2019: Georgia Rizzi describes freak ordeal after being struck by lightning"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 16-year-old girl has told of the terrifying moment she was struck by lightning in the city\u2019s north-east, describing the freak ordeal as like being \u201cstabbed with 1000 needles\u201d.<\/p>\n

Georgia Rizzi was one of three people struck by lightning during a summer thunderstorm on Thursday morning \u2014 Perth\u2019s first downpour since December.<\/p>\n

The Eastern Hills Senior High School student said she was chatting with friends at school when lighting struck a nearby metal post, injuring her and her friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just standing around the tennis court talking to my friends about the school ball, and then everyone\u2019s hair starts sticking up,\u201d she told 9NEWS.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I had just been stabbed with 1000 needles.<\/p>\n

\"GeorgiaCamera IconGeorgia was struck by lightning in today’s storm 9NEWS Credit: 9NEWS\/9NEWS<\/p>\n

\u201cThe teachers, the nurses, the doctors, my dad were all saying buy a lotto ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n

The girls were rushed to Midland Hospital and Fiona Stanley Hospital, and were discharged later that day.<\/p>\n

Grandfather Michael Day was walking his daughter\u2019s dog, Messi, in Hamersley about 9am when he was struck by a lightning bolt, killing Messi instantly.<\/p>\n

The 78-year-old suffered burns on his abdomen and inner thigh and was rushed to hospital where he remains in a stable condition.<\/p>\n

Mr Day\u2019s daughter, Karyn Avalos, described her father\u2019s survival as a miracle, but said she was devastated by Messi\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n

\u201cDad\u2019s in a lot of pain, I think when it happened he was still joking about and that\u2019s typical dad, but I think now it\u2019s all kind of sunk in for him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids called Messi their hero, because who knows would have happened if Messi didn\u2019t take the full brunt of the the electrical force.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will really miss him.\u201d<\/p>\n

St John WA special operations manager Deane Coxall said it was the first time he had seen three people struck by lightning in the same day in his 15-year career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an incredibly unfortunate and unlikely event, I would be very surprised if we ever saw it again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 16-year-old girl has told of the terrifying moment she was struck by lightning in the city\u2019s north-east,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,8984,44,45],"class_list":["post-505743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-disaster-and-emergency","tag-news","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}