Amazing Box Jelly Survival Story

[ricki]

A plague in parts of the Pacific, particularly around Australia. An unseasonal wind shift directed box jellys into the south shore of Kauai when we were there but no big deal, wrong species? Different story in Oz. Not an expert but perhaps the article might have more accurately stated, the "first person to survive such severe injuries from a box jelly?" Anyway, it's an intriguing story with a good ending.


Box jelly
http://alittlejourney.wordpress.com/...things-i-love/ and http://health.gather.com/viewArticle...81474978200573

"A ten-year-old girl has become the first person ever to have survived an attack from a lethal box jellyfish, the world's most venomous creature. Rachael Shardlow was stung by the creature while swimming in the Calliope River, near Gladstone, in Queensland, Australia. Rachael's 13-year-old brother pulled her on to the riverbank. She told him she could not see or breathe, and fell unconscious with the jellyfish's tentacles still strapped to her limbs.



Zoology and tropical ecology associate professor at James Cook University, Jamie Seymour, says the girl's survival after such an extensive sting is unheard of. 'I don't know of anybody in the entire literature where we've studied this where someone has had such an extensive sting that has survived,' he told ABC news in Australia. 'When I first saw the pictures of the injuries I just went, 'you know to be honest, this kid should not be alive. I mean they are horrific.



Extensive sting: Rachael's leg following the sting, which are experts are amazed didn't kill her. 'Usually when you see people who have been stung by box jellyfish with that number of the tentacle contacts on their body, it's usually in a morgue.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...#ixzz0pGXVk57v


http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/q...-1225816392254

Heal fast and well Rachael, you're quite an amazing girl!

More about box jellys:
http://www.amazingaustralia.com.au/a...h_sea_wasp.htm
https://www.mja.com.au/public/issues...le/little.html