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One of the unluckiest people on the planet was recently stung 160 times by a swarm of wasps, including 15 times in the back of the head.
Andrew Powell, 57, says he is “lucky to be alive” after the sky “turned brown” with the wasps before attacking him en masse.
“I was running fast,” he said.
The BBC reports that the nasty insects got riled up after a farmer’s combine harvester disturbed a nest in a field near his home.
“I stumbled about the front of the house and into the shower, but they followed me in, and stung me through my clothes in the shower,” Powell said. “The bathroom was full of them.”
Somehow he managed to avoid being stung in the face by the wasps, but did say that he “was dropping in and out of consciousness,” adding, “all I could see was a white light and I thought ‘here we go.’”
Natalie Bungay, technical officer at the British Pest Control Association, told the BBC, “Being stung by one wasp isn’t normally dangerous, 30 or 40 stings could kill you.”
Powell says a friend who lives nearby drove him to the local Brecon War Memorial Hospital where he was given adrenaline, morphine and co-codamol for the pain.
“If they hadn’t, then I’d be dead,” he said, adding, “If it wasn’t for that unit in Brecon and those two wonderful nurses on Sunday night, I wouldn’t be here now.”
He was transferred to another hospital later that evening.
“I feel really quite weak and tired because I haven’t slept since it happened because there’s just too much pain,” he said. “The stings have got worse and have turned purple.”
Remember the beeocalypse of 2021? Let’s hope this isn’t the beginning of something like that happening again.
Five years ago, a man in Texas was stung over 160 times by a swarm of bees and barely survived.