Gran rescued from bee attack
Two heroes put their lives on the line in separate incidents to rescue their loved ones.
|||Durban - Two heroes put their lives on the line in separate incidents this weekend to rescue their loved ones.
In Amanzimtoti, a man went to his grandmother’s rescue when a swarm of bees stung her all over her body while they were walking past a home where a hive had been disturbed.
The incident happened in Doonside in Amanzimtoti on Saturday. Netcare 911 spokesman Chris Botha, who farms with bees and went to the scene with his equipment, said when he arrived the granny was lying down, her skin swollen from thousands of stings.
The fire department was also at the scene. They had to use fire gear and breathing apparatus masks to protect themselves from the “frantic” bees flying around.
“When we went towards the patient I found that her grandson had run to her assistance and, after putting the granny on his back, he put a blanket around them for protection,” he said.
“Within a few metres, though, the man had also received a few hundred stings and had to sit down on the ground. We removed both the granny and grandson to a safe area while firemen kept a fine water spray on us to calm the bees.
“Once I got them to safety and was able to remove the blanket, I found that the granny had literally sustained thousands of bee stings.”
Botha said paramedics worked fervently to stabilise the critically ill patients before they were taken to hospital.
He said it was thought that children had found the bees in a tyre and had thrown stones at it.
“As soon as the bees were disturbed they attacked the people,” he said. “Sadly, the granny was walking past when this happened.”
In a separate incident a 12-year-old girl is in a serious but stable condition after a near-drowning in the Richards Bay area at the weekend.
The girl had rushed to the aid of her younger sister, aged 6, when she had got into difficulty in the water.
Botha said it was reported that two girls were on a sandbank close to Pelican Island.
Their father had gone to surf and they had decided to go back to the beach.
While making their way back to the main beach, the younger child disappeared under the water as they tried to cross a trough.
The 12-year-old immediately dived into the water and pushed her sister to the surface, only coming up to breathe.
The father raced to their assistance, and pulled the youngest child on to his surfboard, but found that the 12-year-old had stopped breathing.
Botha said Netcare medics rushed to assist them, and it was a great relief when the child gave a big cough, brought up some water, and started breathing on her own.
The Netcare 911 advanced life support paramedic treated the child at the scene before taking her to a local hospital.
Westville bee expert Melvyn Dawson said bees were not usually a danger to humans, but were wild creatures that did not like interference or threats to their hive.
’Bees feel threatened by strong vibrations like lawn mowers. Bees also do not like the smell of cut grass. Spraying of insecticides near them or into the hive, can cause them to really go crazy,’ he said.
Bees usually attacked the face, especially near the eyes and nose, as these areas were free from hair.
He said the average person could take a 100 or so stings, causing localised pain. But there were some people to whom a single sting was fatal. He said in this case it would depend on the granny’s individual reaction to so many stings.
He cited a case from last year where two elderly people were stung badly while hiking in the Berg. One was in the ICU for four days and had months of after-effects such as dizziness and tiredness. The other had renal failure and was in hospital for a month, he said.
The Mercury