I guess it was bound to happen. 

After a mild, rainy summer, the first real nice days of the fall season is what probably attracted the influx of bees around our community.

All of a sudden, they're everywhere.  I'm talking swarms of the little stingers.  I am surprised we haven't had any more calls involving beestings!

This latest incident happened only yesterday.  An elderly man mowing his lawn got attacked by a swarm of bees.  Hundreds of them.  They stung him from neck down to crotch.  When we got to the scene, the man was on the ground, hollering and screaming to beat the band.  He was absolutely covered in a sea of bees; it looked like he was wearing a brownish-yellow carpet.

It was the stuff of nightmares, the kind you see in those old horror movies. 

The movie, "The Swarm", comes to mind.

My partner, "Goose", grabbed the fire extinguisher and immediately began spraying at the bees, to get them off of the gentleman, who was now clearly in pain--and probably going into shock, no doubt.

When the bees were done for, we immediately went to work on the stricken gentleman.  He was in his eighties and had been in very good health, considering his advanced age.  He was clearly in trouble now:  he was gasping for air and appeared to be in tremendous pain.  Red welts covered his body, from his neck area downwards. 

When we removed his shirt, we found dead bees in his shirt, maybe one or two alive, but barely so.  They were in the process of dying themselves.

It was one of the nastiest things I had ever seen.

The guy was clearly showing all the signs of anaphylactic shock:  gasping, labored breathing.  Swelling of his neck and face.  Extremely low b/p.  Rapid, weak pulse.  Collapsed veins (getting an IV into him was a joke; we finally found a teeny tiny vein near his thumb).  Hives popping out all over his body.

We knew we had to get this man to the hospital, fast, if he was to have any chance of surviving.  We had dealt with beestings before:  a young lady who had a severe allergy.  Yet compared to this, the young lady never got stung multiple times.  This was what probably precipitated the allergy-like symptoms in this man:  multiple stings, everywhere on his body.

We got the guy on oxygen, loaded him up onto the stretcher (head raised, to promote easier breathing), got him on a heart monitor, and put him quickly into the rear of our ambulance.  We then got in, where we raced to the nearest hospital (Nashville Memorial) in just a few minutes; we broke all speed records.

Luckily, despite the seriousness of the situation, the guy pulled through.  He is currently recovering; he is expected to be released from the hospital in a few days.  I bet he won't be doing his lawnwork anymore; he'll probably have to call someone to do it for him.  And secondly, he will have to probably call for an exterminating outfit, to get rid of all the bees in his backyard; there were probably thousands (perhaps more), but he only managed to get stung 130 times.

No wonder the guy went into shock.  I probably would too, if I got drilled like that!!

I'm just glad the incident had a happy ending.  Too many times people have died as a result of beestings; beestings are nothing to mess with, particularly if someone is allergic or is stung multiple times.  Now I can't sleep without seeing the image of the man covered head to toe in bees.  I now hate bees more than ever, thanks to this incident.

~Angela Ruiz, EMT, Nashville, TN.