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Sole survivor of DC lightning strike that killed three speaks out: ‘I don’t know why I survived’

The sole survivor of a DC lightning strike that killed three others has spoken out for the first time.

In an interview with Good Morning America aired on Wednesday, 28-eight-year-old Amber Escudero-Kontostathis opened up about her survivor’s guilt as she recovers from injuries she sustained during the 5 August lightning strike just blocks away from the White House.

“I’m grateful, but I just don’t feel good that I am the only one [who survived],” she told GMA while choking back tears. “I don’t know why I survived. I just don’t think it’s fair.”

The lightning killed Jenna and Donna Mueller, a married couple in their 70s who had been chatting with Ms Escudero-Kontostathis just moments before they were hit by lightning, and 29-year-old Brooks Lamberston.

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Ms Escudero-Kontostathis was canvassing outside the White House for several hours, collecting donations to help refugees from Ukraine, The Washington Post reported. She and her husband had planned to go to dinner that evening to celebrate her birthday.

She suffered second-degree burns and her heart stopped several times before two nurses who were visiting the White House on vacation and Secret Service agents worked together to restore her pulse.

Ms Escudero-Kontostathis said she thinks the Dr. Martins’s platforms she was wearing that day may have contributed to her less severe injuries.

“They definitely didn’t save my life,” she said. “But I think it contributed to potentially less of a burn.”

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