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"Lightning bolt flashed through my arms": How close star came to death
SEN • April 28th, 2025 8:08 pm
Former AFLW star Jess Wuetschner has opened up on how close she came to losing her life after she was struck by lightning five years ago.
Just weeks before the start of the 2020 AFLW season, Wuetschner was working a night shift on the docks in Queensland when a huge storm rolled in.
The then 27-year-old, who was playing for the Brisbane Lions at the time, vividly remembers the moment a metal rod she was holding was struck by lightning and flashes “of white and blue went up her arms”.
“There was a storm rolling through,” Wuetschner told SEN Tasmania. “There was a lot of rain and some lightning in the distance. We probably shouldn't have been working.
“I was unlocking containers with a big aluminium pole on the top of the ship and then you just heard this big like thunder, like banging, clap, and then the lightning actually hit the pole that I was holding.
“It was pretty crazy and I saw the white and blue lightning go up my arms.
“Thankfully, it was up my arms and not through me, which is why I'm here today; I’m thankful for the rubber gloves and rubber shoes that I was wearing that saved my life.”
Incredibly, Wuetschner came through the terrifying ordeal with no physical injuries and was discharged from hospital hours after the incident. But the mental scars have been significant and remain a daily reminder of what she endured.
“For the first couple of weeks after it happened I put on that brave face,” she continued.
“Then eventually I cracked and it was a really difficult time for me, particularly the first 18 months.
“I definitely considered hanging up the boots, it was so hard just to get out of the house to go to training each day and the anxiety that was around that was really challenging for someone like me who was incredibly outgoing and the life of the party.”
While working on her recovery, Wuetschner was dealt another blow with the Lions delisting her.
It was a brutal moment in her life and one which soured some important relationships.
It was a brutal moment in her life and one which soured some important relationships.
“The way that it happened I wasn't overly happy with and the support that I was getting sort of towards the back end of my career at Brisbane, I didn't feel like it was there,” she said.
“I got a message from the CEO Brie Brock to come in and I thought that they were just going to be checking up on me and seeing how I was. It turned out that she was having the conversation with me that I wasn't going to be offered a contract the next year. So that was very difficult for me
“I just felt like I didn't get the support that I probably needed at the time.”
Wuetschner is now back home in Tasmania where she has been appointed Devils Girls Head Coach.
