AFLW star Jessica Wuetschner has revealed the terrifying physical and mental toll of the 2020 lightning strike that “ruined my life” and almost derailed her football career.
It was two weeks out from the start of the 2020 AFLW season when Wuetschner, then 27 and playing for the Brisbane Lions while working as a stevedore, was struck by lightning as the crane she was driving unloaded a ship on the docks in Queensland.
“A storm just starts rolling in, and it is pouring with rain, I mean like torrential Queensland pour, and the wind is like 60ks an hour, blowing through, it’s like needles to the face,” Wuetschner recalled in a TikTok video.
“I say to the guy who’s working with me, ‘We should not be working right now, it is too bad of a storm, to be out right now,’ but me being just me, little stevedore not in charge, just does what I’m told.”
Wuetschner, now 30, said she heard a “big bang, clap zzz” when lightning hit the pole she was holding. “I saw big, bluey white flashes go up my arms, and then I kind of like, from there, just sort of fell to the ground.”
Wuetschner says she feared for her life, before being rushed to hospital.
“After about three hours they discharged me, at about 5.30am-ish... I walked out of the hospital with no shoes, soaking wet, no way to get home, no family, none of my friends were answering their phone. I had to get in a taxi soaking wet, by myself, to get home.”
But her odyssey was far from over. Wuetschner was back in hospital two weeks later after an adverse reaction to anti-anxiety medication. “It was a really scary time and that’s when we sort of came to the conclusion I needed to go on antidepressants to help manage anxiety,” she explained.
Having missed the opening month of the 2021 season, Wuetschner re-established herself as a key cog in Brisbane’s run to win their first premiership. In the 18-point Grand Final victory against Adelaide she kicked two goals. But despite being able to continue her AFLW career, the anxiety and PTSD suffered from the accident still cause her significant issues.
“I was like lucky not to be physically affected,” Wuetschner said. “I was wearing rubber gloves and rubber shoes, and I was suspended in the air, which means the electricity didn’t go through me, which is my saving grace.”
But she clarified: “Saving grace to my life but not so much my mental health.”
A two-time All-Australian, the Hobart-born Wuetschner was a gifted hockey and cricket star before making her debut for Brisbane in the AFLW 2016 season. In 2022, Wuetschner announced she would take time away from AFLW to focus on her mental health. Brisbane said they would “continue to provide Jess with our full support” but in May Wuetschner was delisted. She joined Essendon the following month.
But while her career has continued, so has her struggle with the aftermath of that fateful day in 2020. “I’m scared to leave the house some days still,” she explained. “I used to travel the world, (but) I couldn’t even think about travelling now. I couldn’t think about leaving anywhere that’s not in my safe zone, in my safe place.
“I’m scared about eating certain things just in case I have an allergic reaction.
Wuetschner said her issues have begun to improve after working with psychologists but others remained. “I’m scared of bugs. I’m scared of any kind of medications that aren’t familiar. I’ll have basically paracetamol and that’s about it. I don’t really like to leave the house still, I still struggle with that a lot just in case something happens. It’s always those what ifs.
“So, that’s kind of what I’ve been struggling with ... that’s why it’s ruined my life and I feel like a different person.”
