“I am starting to think about the future for the first time this whole year, and it still feels very new,” said Thalita Teixeira Padilla.

Last fall, Thalita Teixeira Padilla experienced a life-changing event when she was struck by lightning while walking her dog. After more than a year in hospitals, she is now getting back to her life and describes feeling “born again.”

Padilla was hit on a Boston beach on September 9, 2023. Thrown into the air, she was aided by a nurse who lived nearby. She was discharged from Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital on September 19, according to ABC 10.

Once a nurse herself, Padilla was admitted to Boston Medical Center in critical condition, facing burns, nerve damage, and a spinal cord injury. She spent several weeks on the “edge of life,” as noted by a hospital official.

“I was crying so much because I didn’t want to lose my daughter, but she is strong,” recalled her mother, Marcia Teixeira, in an interview with the Boston outlet.

In October, Padilla was transferred to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, where she continued her recovery and gradually learned to walk again.

“It was amazing to watch; she was incredible to work with,” Norah Sweeney, a physical therapist at Spaulding, told ABC 10. She noted that Padilla “works really hard.”

“She was not able to walk independently when she arrived, and now she is out walking and going places by herself,” Sweeney added.

Padilla’s recovery reached a turning point about two months ago when she suddenly “started to feel less pain” in her body.

“Something went off like a lightbulb in my head,” she recalled of that moment.

Now experiencing reduced pain and able to move with the help of a walker, Padilla was discharged on Thursday. She told ABC 10 that she hopes to return to work as soon as possible.

“I am starting to think about the future for the first time this whole year, and it feels very new still,” said the former nurse, who plans to move to Connecticut. “It feels like I was born again; it feels like starting a whole new life,” she added.

Meanwhile, Padilla’s dog, Bruce, who went missing after she was struck last fall, was later found and returned to her family.