Yes, but lightning doesn’t come from the sky and hit the ground. Lightning is the result of an accumulated charge which is released to the atmosphere. Lightning goes from the ‘ground’ up.
That is why there are lightning arrestors. They don’t actually arrest anything, they simply disperse the excess ground charge into the air slowly.
Lightning occurs between two points that have a negative excess of charge to an area that has a low positive charge.
Walking across dry grass in shoes can cause an accumulated charge.
And it’s a moot point , as the lightning stuck ‘near’ him, and not directly to him or the radio. The radio may or may not have had any effect on the incident. He’s alive, which is what is really important.
His radio had ZERO effect to being or not being hit. It was a non issue and could not have been a factor except for indirectly placing him where he was at while doing his task.
It is safe to use portable handheld communication devices during storms such as cordless phones, cell phones, and this would include a HAM radio handheld as long as any of the above mentioned are not directly connected to an external power source or as in a phone line cordless phone base unit the phone line directly.
In other words in a storm a cordless phone is safe too use. But stay away from the base because if lightning runs in on the line yes it can harm you. But will that then jump cordless to cordless or base to cordless? NO. Cellphone use in storms is safe. If cellphones are safe then HAMs not connected to an external meaning tower are safe as well. A car can be hit and it transit the antenna on a mobile unit connected too a rooftop of car antenna but that is rare.
That is why the storm chasers and Skywarn {Ham Operators} many times either use handheld on their person or their mobile radio in their vehicle during their activation for weather warnings.
The man was hit simply because he was standing in the area the lightning hit formed. It was his unfortunate or possibly fortunate location that saved him. Had he been standing empty handed he would have still been hit.
I have been monitoring radios via multiple scanners for many years and when storms get close I switch from external outdoor antenna to rubber duck to monitor HAM traffic. The HAM Radio Operators {Not to be confused with The Storm Chasers} will be on the air during those times reporting their visual confirmation of conditions with their own eyes tracking it. These are the ones who know best what is safe and what is not safe radio transmitting conditions and how to be safe. That is why he had his handheld radio.
They communicate from handheld HAM radio to a nearby repeater that is designated as the SKYWARN frequency during storms. Local National Weather Service Offices and often TV weather department meteorologist will monitor those local repeaters as their radar can not confirm ground contact of a tornado. Human eyes can though. If you listen to them you can get sometimes several minutes heads up on tornadoes and it's tracking.