Singer Joshua Wheeker Struck by Lightning

Singer Joshua Wheeker is awake and talking with family after he was struck by lightning last week. According to local reports, Wheeker, a 33-year-old opera singer from Naperville, Florida, was coming in from fishing on the Panama City Beach Pier when he was struck on Thursday, April 27.

Ethan Bryan, who witnessed the terrifying incident, told ABC7 that “the storm kinda started rolling in, and they called everyone off of the pier, due to the lightning.” Wheeker and another man were “walking down the pier” when lighting struck just behind them but missed, causing the two men to hunker down. However, according to Bryan, “within about five or 10 seconds, the second one hit, and actually struck one of the men, and it was a pretty bad situation.” Wheeker, who was on vacation at the time, was struck by the lightning bolt, with NBC 5 Chicago reporting that both his father and brother performed CPR on the singer until paramedics arrived and transported him to the hospital.

In a Saturday update on Facebook, Wheeker’s wife, Tara, a soprano with the Lyric Opera Company in Chicago, said that her husband was just 20 feet from safety when he was struck, writing, “Some of you may know that my husband, Josh, was struck by lightning less than 48 hours ago. It’s still unbelievable to even write those words.” According to Tara, Wheeker has since regained consciousness and has “even expressed his true Josh nature, which for those of you that know him, means being his goofy, loving, and selfless person.”

“He is still battling though. His body went through an intense trauma and we are still unsure how it will continue to manifest. Currently, his short term memory is struggling, but we are hoping that will improve with time. The pain is quite intense and it’s very difficult to watch him be in agony,” Tara continued, adding that her husband still “has a long way to go.” She asked to keep Wheeker in their thoughts and pray for him, writing, “He means a lot to so many people and this world needs him desperately.”

Wheeker is “an exciting lyric tenor in the opera world,” according to his website, which notes that the singer is a graduate of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist program of the LA Opera and received his Bachelor’s of Music from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. Wheeker was last seen in Opera Maine’s L’elisir d’amore, Don Ottavio in Dayton Opera’s Don Giovanni, the Duke of Mantua in Tulsa Opera’s Rigoletto, and Tamino in LA Opera’s Kosky production of Die Zauberflöte.