BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — A 36-year-old Denver man died and his wife was injured when they were struck by lightning while hiking on the popular Bear Peak trail in Boulder County Sunday afternoon, according to the sheriff's office.
The victim has been identified as Peter Jornroth. An autopsy was performed and his official cause of death is still pending, according to the Boulder County Coroner.
According to a release from the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, dispatchers received a 911 call on Sunday from a hiker reporting that two other hikers had been struck by lightning. He said a Jornroth was unconscious and not breathing, and that a passerby had started CPR. HIs 37-year-old wife was conscious and alert.
The Sheriff's Office said rescue crews found the couple about a quarter-mile up the Bear Creek Trail from the trailhead, which is in the 2700 block of Bison Road. They took over CPR from the bystander and used an automated external defibrillator (AED) on the Jornroth. They managed to re-establish his pulse, but he later died at the hospital after being taken there by helicopter.
The investigation suggested that the man took a direct lightning strike to his upper body, the release said. His wife was not directly hit, but she suffered non-life-threatening injuries from the electrical current. She was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
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