Texas teen survives bizarre lightning strike inside her home

© My Fox Austin
A neighbor saw the couple's house get struck by lightning and told the family the bolt went from underneath the house and through the roof, leaving noticeable damage

    

A teenager was left shocked and temporarily unable to walk after she was struck by lightning while opening the refrigerator inside her Austin home.

Macie Martinez was reaching for an apple sauce when lightning struck her home and passed through the kitchen's appliances.

Misty Villarreal, Macie's mother, was in the living room when she heard what sounded like an explosion, and then a loud gut-wrenching scream.

Villarreal said her husband, Anthony, pulled Macie off the fridge and held her while she 'screamed and screamed and at the same time shook', she described on the family's GoFundMe page.

All the lights in the house had gone off when the lightning struck and Villarreal panicked as she was unable to see if her daughter was bleeding.

'I was shaking, screaming, crying because I was so powerless,' she wrote. 'I couldn't help my child.'

Macie described the moment, which happened on Memorial Day, as the 'most painful thing' she has ever experienced in her life.

'Afterwards, I couldn't feel my legs, and I couldn't walk and I was just shaking,' she told .

Forty-five minutes before lightning struck, the family was getting reading for a night of movie-watching and playing cards after a tornado warning was lifted and they were able to leave their pantry.

Now they were rushing Macie to the hospital.

© My Fox Austin
Doctors also found a fern-pattern rash (pictured) consistent with lightning burns on Macie's left shoulder, where they believe the electricity exited her body

    

Villarreal said the doctors ruled that Macie had suffered from secondary electrocution and temporary paralysis.

Since Macie did not go into cardiac arrest when she was electrocuted, they believed her heart was fine and ran an electrocardiogram test to confirm.

Doctors also found a fern-pattern rash consistent with lightning burns on Macie's left shoulder, where they believe the electricity exited her body.

Similar burn marks also appeared on Anthony's arm, which Villarreal said he got from taking Macie off of the fridge and holding her.

Anthony told My Fox Austin he didn't even notice the burn until he came home from the hospital, but has since felt 'some sort of pain' and that his right arm 'gets tingly'.

© My Fox Austin
Similar burn marks also appeared on Anthony's arm (pictured), which Villarreal said he got from taking Macie off of the fridge and holding her

    

Macie has been experiencing the same tingly feeling and her mother said she is exhausted 'most of the time' and also 'a bit frightened to go near appliances or plug anything into outlets'.

Her doctors diagnosed Macie with ulnar nerve damage and believes she is showing signs of PTSD. They are monitoring her liver and kidneys.

A neighbor saw the couple's house get struck by lightning and told the family the bolt went from underneath the house and through the roof, leaving noticeable damage.

The lightning strike also left the home's major appliances fried, burned two marks above a mirror in one of the bathrooms, and separated sections of the downstairs wood flooring from their foundation.

The family plans to install lightning rods and a surge protector in their house and said the accident has completely altered their perspective on storms.

'It's a change,' said Macie, who feels 'lucky' and 'blessed' to be alive.

'Normally, I'd go outside in the rain, but now it's like oh my gosh, there many be a storm I need to stay inside. I need to be safe. Stay in bed.'

Villarreal said she will be following the example of her grandmother in West Virginia.

'Every time a storm rolled in she would unplug everything and we all thought she was crazy,' she said.

'But I will tell you, I will be the crazy one now unplugging everything.'