Indian-origin student struck by lightning in Houston recovering

PTI, Jul 28, 2023, 10:35 AM IST

A 25-year-old Indian-origin student, who was struck by lightning earlier this month and was fighting for her life, is off ventilator and on the road to recovery, doctors said.

Susroonya Koduru, a foreign exchange student studying information technology at the University of Houston, was walking along a pond with her friends on July 2 at the San Jacinto Monument Park when lightning hit. She is ”miraculously” breathing on her own since the last week and has been taken off the ventilator, according to the hospital sources. The doctors monitoring her condition said she is doing good without the ventilator and if her recovery continues, she might not need the ventilator.

Members of Koduru’s family, who were trying to get her parents from Hyderabad to Houston, told PTI that the visas of her parents for the US has been approved and should be arriving next week.

Koduru was put on ventilator support with a tracheostomy as she was unable to breath and had a PEG tube to support nutrition while waiting for any return of brain function.

There were no updates from the University of Houston, which on July 26 had tweeted that ”our hearts are heavy with concern and compassion for Susroonya Koduru, a University of Houston graduate student, who was struck by lightning earlier this month”. The university also release posted on Twitter that it was in close contact with her family in India and understands the profound impact of such an unforeseen event. Recognising the urgency of the situation, a statement by the institution said, its international students and scholar services office was assisting her parents with the US visa process.

Kuduru’s cousin Surendra Kumar Kotha had said, ”When she got hit by lightning and was thrown into the pond, she went into cardiac arrest for 20 minutes before circulation could be restored.” Subsequently, she suffered devastating brain damage and went into a coma. At that point she was unable to breathe on her own and needed ventilator support with a tracheostomy and had a PEG (percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy) tube to support nutrition while waiting for any return of brain function.

The family is appealing through ”GoFundMe to meet medical costs. On her page, the family has urged all for help so that she can get back to her normal routine. Kuduru came to the US for further studies and was a Masters student in Information Technology at the university. She had nearly completed her courses and was waiting for an internship opportunity.

According to the National Weather Service, the chances of getting struck by lightning per year are one in nearly 1.2 million. In the last 30 years, there have been an average of 43 lightning deaths per year. Ten per cent of people who are struck by lightning are killed, leaving 90 per cent with various degrees of disabilities, it states.