Woman who was critically injured in lightning strike discharged from hospital to rounds of applause

A Dorchester woman who was critically injured when she was struck by lightning on a Boston beach in September was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday to cheers and applause. 

Thalita Teixeira Padilla, who worked as a travel nurse, was struck by lightning while walking her dog along the boardwalk at Savin Hill Beach on September 9. The strike threw her onto the beach and rendered her unconscious. Witnesses called 911 and performed CPR before she was rushed to a hospital in critical condition.

After a month of care, she was released by Boston Medical Center on Wednesday, heading to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital to continue her care and recovery, according to WCVB. 

She left the hospital to cheers and applause.

“When I first met her, which was sort of the next day, you could not be sicker than she was,” Dr. Tracey Dechert of BMC told WCVB.

Padilla’s family told the station she died from the lightning strike but was resuscitated by a nurse who performed CPR at the scene.

Dechert said Padilla, who is now expected to make a full recovery, would have died without the quick actions of the nurse. 

“She’s already talking about maybe using this time to go back for her masters while she’s in recovery,” Padilla’s brother Andre Teixeira told WCVB. “That explains where her spirit is at. When she’s like that, we are like that.”