‘Grateful to be alive’: Broward native back at home after lightning strike recovery
When James Fernandez was wheeled into his March 28 homecoming party at his house in Clearwater, he expected to see a handful of loved ones who’d cheered him on through his spinal cord injury recovery.
The turnout of over 150 guests took the Pembroke Pines native by complete surprise.
“I didn’t realize there were so many people that had so much love and support for me and my family,” Fernandez, 42, told the Pembroke Pines News. “We thought it was just going to be like a little block party of closest friends and family, but it turned into something much bigger.”
In November, Fernandez was struck by lightning while mountain biking in Peru and stranded for two hours before police and medical services arrived.
He suffered a spinal cord injury that rendered him a C4 quadriplegic — paralysis of all four limbs, the torso and often the diaphragm — with doctors predicting he’d never be taken off a ventilator or feeding tube.
Nearly five months later, Fernandez is back home, on a regular diet and enjoying sentimental conversations with the support system that carried him through the grueling rehabilitation journey.
Though he says he’s still working out his “new normal,” he’s optimistic about his recovery and believes it’s shown him, “There’s still life to be had.”
“I’m really grateful to be alive. ... I’m really, really grateful to be here to watch my kids grow up,” Fernandez said. “There’s lots of tools out there that are gonna help me get outside and enjoy life. (Life’s) going to look really different for everybody around me, including myself.”
The accident, the road to recovery
Fernandez was only 10 minutes into his bike ride with his friend Yuri Botelho, of Minnesota, and a local guide when lightning struck the trio on a Peru mountain trail 12,000 feet above sea level on Nov. 26.
Fernandez was launched 15 feet in the air by the impact; Botelho was killed instantly. The guide, who was unscathed, ran to find cellphone reception and call for help.
“When we got there, we could see that there were some storms in the distance across the valley ... (but) it was a pretty cool day,” Fernandez said. “Next thing I remember, I’m on the ground. I could feel pain in my neck. I couldn’t feel my arms, my legs, my ears were ringing, and I was having a lot of trouble catching my breath.”
Fernandez was rushed into emergency brain surgery before being medically evacuated from Cusco — where he and Botelho had traveled with their wives and babies for the Thanksgiving holiday — and taken to Tampa General Hospital.
Once eligible for rehab, he was transferred to the Shepherd Center — a leading brain and spine injury clinic in Atlanta — three days before Christmas, where he’d come to adopt their slogan as his own: “The bridge between I can’t and I can.”
Fernandez was able to shed his neck brace at the clinic, learned to operate motorized wheelchairs using “mouth controls and head taps,” and mastered Siri commands to navigate his devices with more ease before being discharged in early March, per the 42-year-old’s GoFundMe page.
Regaining mobility, however, is a long ways off.
“The only way I could explain it is despair. As a parent, you want to fix it, but I can’t,” Fernandez’s father, who also goes by James, explained between tears. “But we have the ability to make it better. We’re just focusing on making it all better and moving forward. There’s no looking back.”
The Pembroke Pines native has only just begun to see muscle activation in his shoulders, biceps and forearms and says, “A big drive of mine is pushing to get my arms back as much as I can.”
Fernandez is also well aware that most of his outdoor hobbies — hiking, surfing, cycling — are largely off-limits, though he’s hopeful they won’t be forever.
“I’m probably never gonna ride a bike again, which sucks. ... But I’ll get to see my son ride bikes and be outside, and I’ll get to get out there with him,” Fernandez said.
Community support and gratitude
Equally as shocking as the accident is the overflow of support from loved ones and strangers, according to Fernandez.
Childhood friends, long-distance relatives from Puerto Rico and new Clearwater neighbors unexpectedly dropped into his homecoming party.
Students at Palm Harbor Middle School in Pinellas County — where Fernandez taught science for four years — and its principal also paid a visit, bringing over 200 handmade get-well cards.
The GoFundMe fundraiser started to pay off his medical bills and raise money for a wheelchair-friendly van and accessibility modifications to his home has garnered over $212,000 as of April 3.
But what’s truly powered him through the past five months has been his two sons — an 8-year-old and 9-month-old — his wife and “rock,” Alexis, and a spirit of gratitude.
“A lot of this is acceptance, being happy with where you’re at,” he said. “That’s so much of life, though, right? We always want more for ourselves, but we have to be happy and be grateful for what we have and where we’re at.”
This story was originally published April 3, 2026 at 2:53 PM with the headline "‘Grateful to be alive’: Broward native back at home after lightning strike recovery."
