Thomas Fahmy, a staffer for Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, survived a one-in-a-million lightning strike just feet from his car on a Staten Island street, and bought a lottery ticket days later.
Fahmy was walking to a dentist appointment along a residential street in Staten Island's Castleton Corners neighborhood, umbrella in hand, when a bolt of lightning hit him during a Thursday afternoon storm. He collapsed near the intersection of Todt Avenue and Windsor Road, roughly 15 to 20 feet from his parked car. The New York Post reported that nearby security-camera footage captured the moment of the strike.
Fahmy hit the ground and started yelling for help. Stefanie Homan, a neighbor, heard the cries from inside her home and ran to her door.
Homan told WNBC what she found:
"I heard yelling, heard 'help me, help me,' so I ran to my door and saw him down here on the ground, so I got the phone and called 911."
EMS arrived and transported Fahmy to Northwell Staten Island University Hospital, where doctors kept him overnight for evaluation. They ran multiple body exams. The results were almost hard to believe.
Fahmy described the immediate sensation to WNBC as intense and disorienting.
"It was a very intense burning sensation, tingling, numbness, pain. Severe pain in both of my feet."
But the hospital discharged him the following day with a clean bill. Fahmy told WABC that repeated examinations turned up nothing lasting.
"No burns. I had multiple body exams, no burns at all."
The odds of being struck by lightning are less than one in a million, according to the Centers for Disease Control. About 90 percent of people who are struck survive. Lightning hits the ground across the United States more than 37 million times a year, but the overwhelming majority of those bolts never touch a person. Fahmy beat some of the longest odds in nature and walked out of the hospital roughly 24 hours later.
For context, a Virginia man named Roy Sullivan holds the all-time record for surviving lightning strikes, seven of them over the course of his life. Fahmy, after just one, said he has no interest in chasing that record.
The days after the strike followed a pattern that says a lot about the man. On Sunday, Fahmy went to church. He was direct about why.
"I went on church Sunday to say thank you God."
By Saturday, one day after his discharge, he had already purchased a Mega Millions lottery ticket. The jackpot stood at $160 million. The drawing came Tuesday night. No one won. Whether Fahmy picked up a lesser prize remains unclear.
Fahmy works out of Rep. Nicole Malliotakis's Staten Island district office. Malliotakis, a Republican representing New York's 11th Congressional District, serves in a House majority that can't afford to lose a single member of its team, even temporarily. She issued a statement praising Fahmy and the neighbor who called for help.
"We are happy, grateful and relieved that Thomas, a valued member of our Staten Island office, is alive and well after being struck by lightning last week. We appreciate the good Samaritan and medical staff at Staten Island University Hospital who helped him get emergency care."
Malliotakis shared the statement through a Facebook video reel. The post underscored how close the call was, and how quickly Fahmy bounced back.
The sequence from strike to hospital moved fast. Fahmy went down on Todt Avenue. Homan heard the screams, saw him on the pavement, and dialed 911 without hesitation. EMS transported him to Northwell Staten Island University Hospital, where the overnight evaluation confirmed no serious injuries. He was home the next day.
Congressional staffers rarely make headlines, but the people who keep district offices running are the ones constituents actually see. When health emergencies strike members or their teams, the work of government doesn't pause. Fahmy's quick recovery meant Malliotakis's office stayed operational without missing a beat.
The episode also spotlights the kind of ordinary civic reflex that still works in American neighborhoods. Homan didn't know Fahmy. She heard someone in trouble, opened her door, and called for help. No committee hearing. No task force. Just a neighbor doing the right thing.
Fahmy, for his part, offered a simple takeaway when reflecting on the experience, one that had nothing to do with politics or odds or lottery tickets.
"Just to appreciate life, smile and breathe fresh airs once in a while and don't let life overwhelm you."
In a political world full of staffers switching sides and chasing the next career move, Fahmy's response to a brush with death was to go to church, buy a lottery ticket, and get back to work. That tells you something about the kind of people who keep the lights on in district offices, and about a country that still produces neighbors like Stefanie Homan.
Sometimes the best reminder of what matters comes out of a clear blue bolt. Or in this case, a Thursday thunderstorm on Staten Island.
