Twenty-four-year-old Andrew Martins is from New Jersey, but he made West Palm Beach, Florida, his home in 2025.
A celebration with friends to ring in 2026 started off normally at a restaurant in North Palm Beach — until what he calls a defining moment right after the clock struck midnight.
“It had to have been a couple minutes right after the ball dropped … And I was in, like, a moment of solitude. I wasn’t talking to anyone,” Martins said. “I was kind of just existing and suddenly felt this quick, hot flash just pour down on me. And at first, I had no idea what it was.”…