Girl lucky to be alive after sting by deadly jellyfish

SYDNEY (AFP) – A 10-year-old Australian girl who survived being stung by the world's most venomous creature, the deadly box jellyfish, may have rewritten medical history, an expert said Tuesday.


Schoolgirl Rachael Shardlow lost consciousness after being badly stung by the jellyfish while swimming in a river in eastern Queensland state with her brother in December, but lived to tell the tale.


"When I first saw the pictures of the injuries I just went, 'you know to be honest, this kid should not be alive'," said Jamie Seymour, professor of zoology and tropical ecology at James Cook University.


"I mean they are horrific. 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," he told public broadcaster, the ABC.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100427/hl_afp/australiaanimaljellyfish

Praise the Lord for what is nothing short of a MIRACLE! :woohoo:

Wow - that is super scary and, you're right, a miracle.

When I was about 11 or 12 a friend of mine was stung by a man-of-war while we were swimming in the ocean at Seabrook Island, SC. She has terrible scars on her upper arm to this day. We never even saw the jellyfish - just the tentacles that got her.

The sea is filled with lots of crazy creatures!

WOW

You are right. Miracle.

I remember watching a documentary on a kind of box jellyfish that is micro size and near to invisible... it is very deadly.

[video=youtube;GK_Cl_54Qh8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK_Cl_54Qh8&feature=related[/video]

I've never heard of this jellyfish! Poor girl! Can't imagine the pain she went through! I live on the Gulf Coast of Florida and have been stung by jellies many times, and while it is indeed painful - nothing like what these people stung by box jellyfish must go through!

A friend of mine, a man in his 50's, got stung by a Portuguese Man-O-War a couple of years ago. It was so bad we had to call an ambulance, and he was taken from the beach on a stretcher to the hospital. He had a lot of trouble afterwards with his arm and hand - took months for it to heal and feel like himself again.

That poor girl! Australia seems to have so many dangerous sea creatures.