The Brief
- Palm Harbor Middle School science teacher James Fernandez suffered a severe spinal cord injury after a lightning strike threw him from his mountain bike in Peru over Thanksgiving.
- The same lightning strike tragically killed Fernandez’s close friend and riding partner, Yuri Botelho.
- Fernandez finally returned home to Clearwater earlier this month after rehabbing in Atlanta.
CLEARWATER, Fla. – For James Fernandez and his wife, Alexis, sitting in their Clearwater home, reading through over 250 cards brings much-needed light to what’s been a difficult past four months.
Over Thanksgiving, the Palm Harbor Middle School science teacher suffered a severe spinal cord injury after a lightning strike threw him from his mountain bike while on vacation in Peru over Thanksgiving.
“This is all new for us, so friends and family are all pitching in to help us find a new normal, find a rhythm,” James, now a quadriplegic, told FOX 13.…