Lt. Stu Tudor sat in his wheelchair next to the field at MAPFRE Stadium on Independence Day, back at the stadium for the first time since June 28, 2014. He was accompanied by his longtime girlfriend, Lisa Watford. They were introduced to the crowd and showered with applause.
It was a memorable moment in a long, difficult year.
“It took everything in my power not to break down and cry,” Watford says. “We got there and there was a standing ovation, which was extremely emotional. There are cameras in your face so you don’t want to react. … You don’t show people that when you’re in public. But it was hard.”
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A year earlier, Tudor had not been in a wheelchair when he came to the stadium. He had walked in. A Columbus Fire Department veteran of 23 years, Tudor was there to participate in a charity soccer match ahead of a Columbus Crew SC game. He was a board member for Get Behind the Badge, an organization that provides financial assistance for first responders, and the match was raising money for men and women hurt in the line of duty.
The weather on the day was dark and ominous, bringing one of those big thunderstorms that slam the Midwest in the summer.
After the charity game, Crew SC were scheduled to play a league match, but the weather was to delay it. In the end, the game wouldn’t be played at all that night.
Tudor was walking across the parking lot when a bolt of lightning struck him in the head and traveled through his body. He immediately went into cardiac arrest, and police and firefighters on the scene hurried to his aid.
While rumors flew around the parking lot and on social media about what happened, Tudor was rushed to a local hospital. For the next several days, uncertainty reigned. Doctors, Watford says, didn’t know how to treat such an intense lightning strike. They had never seen anyone survive such a strike.
“We didn’t know whether he was going to live or die,” Watford says. “We didn’t know moment to moment how it was going to be. And unfortunately, with a strike of this magnitude, nobody else knew either.”
But Tudor is a fighter. During more than two decades with the fire department, he was known for being a gregarious, “by-the-books guy.” He wasn’t going to go out easily.
“He has a lot of will to live, that’s for sure,” Watford says. “He wasn’t done yet. He’s incredible.”
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Today, Tudor’s mind works fine. But his body just isn’t cooperating yet. Unfortunately, that fighting spirit didn’t help doctors give a diagnosis. Doctors haven’t been able to discern much about his condition.
Tudor is still currently classified as a quadriplegic, though he has some movement in his arms. He can speak and has his wits about him, but is undergoing strenuous physical therapy aimed at helping him regrow the muscle and strength he’s lost in the last year.
For now, Tudor is confined to a skilled nursing home until he can feed himself. Until he can pick up a cup, for instance, he can’t leave the facility.
All of this, naturally, has tested Tudor and Watford’s relationship. Watford drives 40 minutes from Powell, Ohio, every day to see Tudor, hoping always that he can come home soon.
And she pushes for some answers from the doctors as to what is going on with her boyfriend and what it all means for them as a couple.
“No answers doesn’t mean good or bad; it just keeps you waiting and hoping,” she says. “You don’t lose hope because of it. But it’s a double-edged sword. You want answers because you don’t know what to expect. It’s like our lives are on hold and we’re waiting every day.”
“Up until that point, we had a really great and happy life,” she continues. “It seemed like that day kind of shut down our lives, or put them on hold. We’re hopeful that we’ll get back to some form of life. Any quality of life at this point, we’ll take.”
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What has helped Tudor and Watford is the support they’ve received from their community. His fellow firefighters are constantly visiting him, helping him work on his speech therapy and other forms of rehab. They have given up their time off to help Tudor get to the 25-year mark of his service, which would allow him to retire and receive his pension.
Even those outside the Columbus family have been involved, and now national organizations are reaching out. Watford was recently contacted by the Sons of the Flag, a national organization founded to help burn victims, who are trying to help Tudor transfer to a hospital in Chicago, where specialists might be able to help.
And Crew SC have stayed behind him the entire time as well. The team donated $10,000 to Tudor’s recovery last year, and donated proceeds from a 50/50 raffle at the July 4 match.
“He’s one of us,” Crew SC head coach and sporting director Gregg Berhalter said after the July 4 match. “Obviously it’s a tragic accident. An unfortunate accident happened last year, but he didn’t leave our minds and we were thinking about him the whole time. It’s great to see him here and that’s a special moment.”
Watford says she and Tudor have made real friends within the soccer community, from Crew SC fans to local soccer blog Massive Report to members of the club’s marketing team.
“I think we’re on their minds often,” Watford says. “I don’t think that day will ever leave the minds of all the people who were involved that day or have been involved since.”
The process of Tudor’s recovery is still a long one. Watford knows this. She says she's ready for it. And she hopes that maybe the next time she and Tudor go to MAPFRE Stadium, he will not be in a wheelchair when the crowd cheers for him.
“The first month after this happened, I didn’t even know if he would ever leave the hospital again, let alone talk,” she said. “Every doctor basically prepared us for the worst. I’m just too determined to prove everybody wrong. We’re hoping that someday he’ll be able to walk back in to the stadium.”
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A GoFundMe page has been set up to help pay for Tudor’s recovery. Donations can be made here.
