A 10-year-old Australian girl survived a sting from one of the world’s most deadly creatures, the box jellyfish.
Can you imagine being stung by one of the world’s most deadly creatures? A sting by a box jellyfish leaves the victim with nearly no chance of survival. Immediate medical care must be available for those lucky enough to make it to shore. The pain is so extreme that most people go into shock and drown before they can swim to safety.
Rachael Shardlow, a 10-year-old Australian girl was swimming in a river quite far from the ocean, where box jellyfish tend to reside, when she was stung on the legs.
Her brother dragged her from the water, yet she fell unconscious moments later. Fortune did not seem to be on her side as she had to be put into a medically-induced coma once at the hospital.
Yet, after all, fortune was very much on her side. According to Jamie Seymour, Zoology and tropical ecology associate professor at James Cook University, actually surviving a sting from the box jellyfish is virtually unheard of, with the victim usually dying within three minutes.
“I don’t know of anybody in the entire literature we’ve studied who has had such an extensive sting and has survived,” he said in the UK’s Telegraph. “Usually when you see people who have been stung by box jellyfish with that number of the tentacle contacts on their body, it’s in a morgue.”
Shardlow is still receiving treatment, but is recovering quite well. Her miraculous story has stunned doctors and has inspired researchers to study her case in order to find clues on how to help future victims.
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