An 8-year-old girl died after being struck by lightning while she was playing in a backyard, only a short distance from family members who watched the tragedy unfold.
Kinslee Tschida’s mother, a nurse, frantically performed CPR on her daughter after the lightning strike in rural Illinois on Friday, July 3, but the child later succumbed to her injuries at a hospital, her heartbroken grandfather said.
Kinslee had been outside on a swing with her cousins when her uncle heard a low “rumble” of thunder and urged the children to get down and head into the house, which was roughly 20 feet away.
“Kinslee was just climbing off, and all of a sudden, in an instant — I mean, there was no warning … It came right in between the tree,” Chris Scheib, who helped raise the young girl, told WGN-TV during an emotional interview.
“In 5 or 10 seconds, she would have been fine,” Scheib told WLS.
Scheib said another granddaughter had been standing less than four feet from Kinslee but was not hurt. Other relatives nearby, who witnessed the strike, also escaped injury.
“They did try CPR. My son and my daughter – on her own daughter – and being a nurse, you know she took that real hard. She can’t save her own daughter,” Scheib said.
“Basically, there’s nothing else you could have done.”
Kinslee was taken from the home in Serena to OSF St. Elizabeth Hospital in Ottawa, where she was pronounced dead.
The La Salle County Coroner’s Office told The Post that an autopsy was conducted on Sunday. The official cause of death will be determined in about four to five weeks, the coroner said.
“It’s unfathomable, it’s unrealistic, it’s hard to grasp,” Schieb said.
Kinslee would have been entering the third grade at Rutland Grade School this fall. Her family says she loved to sing, dance and bring joy to those around her, WGN-TV reported.
A GoFundMe was started to help Kinslee’s family cover burial and medical expenses.
“You try to muddle through it, I guess. I never had to deal with this in my life until now, and it’s changed me. I think we’re all broken,” Scheib said.
Kinslee’s death is the fourth lightning fatality in the US so far this year, according to the National Lightning Safety Council.
