TOWN OF EAGLE, Wis. — A Chicago woman revived her boyfriend twice with CPR after both were struck by lightning in the Kettle Moraine State Forest on Aug. 9, 2025. Rescue crews took 50 minutes to reach them on foot after she called 911.
Nick Broderick had surprised girlfriend Eva Broderick with a 10-mile hike at the forest.
TMJ4 News reporter Rebecca Klopf has their story in the video below:
"It was a really beautiful hike for, I would say, most of it up until the last bit," Eva Broderick said.
They were a little more than 2 miles from their car when a sudden storm hit.
"The rain just kept getting heavier and heavier as a really big rainstorm just suddenly hit us out of nowhere," Nick Broderick said.
With nowhere to take shelter, they kept moving forward. The storm grew worse, and the thunder was so loud Eva Broderick grew worried.
"She turned around and turned to me and said, Nick, 'what if we get struck by lightning?'" Nick Broderick said.
Minutes later, the last thing Nick Broderick remembers from that day was hearing a boom. Firefighters said the tree next to them took a direct lightning hit, and the couple was struck by the ground current.
"All I remember was being, like, curled in a fetal position, like, with my, hands over my ears, like, screaming, I think, and feeling what can only be described as electricity in my feet," Eva Broderick said.
"I was curled into Nick, and I looked over, and he was laying on his back, like, his eyes were half open, glazed over, and he was blue and, like, not breathing," Eva Broderick said.
Eva Broderick called 911 and immediately started CPR. But she couldn't tell rescue crews where they were — the cell signal kept dropping.
"It's pinging out a mile, a mile and a half into the forest area and it's not very specific," Palmyra Fire Rescue Asst. Chief Dan Schiller said.
She couldn't remember where they had entered the forest or which path they were on. When crews reached the trailhead, there were three path options.
"We just took a best guess and tried to send people everywhere we could," Schiller said.
It took 50 minutes from the 911 call for crews to reach them — and they could only get there on foot. Eva Broderick — who had also been struck by lightning — had to revive Nick twice in that time.
"That is not something that normally happens," Schiller said.
Eva performed CPR on Nick despite having been struck by lightning herself.
"This is pretty extraordinary on its own," Schiller said.
Nick Broderick was taken to a hospital, where he spent three days recovering. He has some hearing loss in one ear and tendon issues from the strike.
After Nick was released from the hospital, he proposed to Eva. They got married this August.
"We wanted to rewrite August and make it a better month," Nick said.
"I've made the joke quite a few times that he can't leave me. I brought him back from death, so he's kind of stuck with me," Eva Broderick said.
Eva will be honored with the Lifesavers Award at the Palmyra Fire Department in two weeks for her bravery in saving Nick.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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