A Shocking Experience.

Introduction.

A couple of months ago Dr Alison MacRobbie experienced a severe reaction to a bee sting while we were working in one of my out-apiaries. It was a very frightening experience and one which Alison thoughtfully shares this week in her guest blog. Alison’s story follows on from Dr Richard Bache’s excellent piece last week on the management of bee stings and reactions.

Being relatively new to beekeeping and wanting a season of mentoring, Alison moved her colony of bees to my garden so that she could inspect them over swarm season under my guidance without my having to travel 26 miles there and back to her apiary. She also wanted to move the hive to another site in her own garden so this was a good way to tackle the move. The original plan was to return the bees to her home outside Inverness at the end of the season but, as often happens, things don’t go according to plan.

A Shocking Experience.

It was a beautiful day in late May, with inspection work required in various colonies: checking for queen cells, late swarm control, new queen brood laying etc. Following a successful morning checking on the colonies at Ann’s home apiary, and a well- deserved cuppa, Ann and I were on our way to Sally’s apiary a few miles away. Ann keeps three colonies there in a beautiful and sheltered garden. We were to carry out our last planned checks of the day in the warm and sunny walled garden apiary. A change of gloves, clean hive tools, equipment loaded onto the trolley, and off we went with Sally to check on both Ann and Sally’s colonies.

Colony 1 inspection was relatively quick, onto colony 2. Ann and Sally were working around the colony and I was on standby a few feet from the hive, observing and passing pieces of equipment etc. The colony was a little feisty as there had been problems with the queen. I was minding my own business and turned my head to the right when I was stung on the neck – no bee inside the suit so I presumed I’d been stung through the veil, despite my collar being turned up, although I hadn’t been aware of a bee anywhere near my suit. I indicated to the ladies I’d been stung and Ann checked I was OK. I moved away and scraped the sting out. Thought nothing more of it and carried on assisting as we rapidly finished the inspection.

Onto colony 3 inspection, where we had to look for stones to prop up Sally’s gabled WBC hive roof. This was a large and heavy hive requiring two of us to lift and move supers etc. The inspection took around 10 minutes or so – many hands make light work. We loaded the equipment and moved it back to where we parked the cars. Walking back, I was aware of a slight itching on the palms of my hands. I was a little concerned but then it stopped so I presumed this was just sweat irritation inside the latex gloves. We got back to the cars, hoods off and put all our kit back in the cars and went over to look at the bees working away in the wisteria-clad wall.

All of a sudden, I was aware of an intense itching across my scalp, I was clawing at the area which felt lumpy and called to Ann to check if I had a rash and to see what was happening. Ann identified a spreading rash across my neck moving downwards. She noticed what looked like blisters forming on my front. Immediately she checked what I wanted to do and she said she would drive me into Raigmore Hospital Inverness to Accident and Emergency Dept (A&E). I took a chlorphenamine (piriton) tablet and called my husband to say that I was having a bee sting reaction, we were at Sally’s at Cantraybridge (he knew roughly, but not precisely, where we were as I had tried to describe the location from a previous visit), Ann was going to drive me to Raigmore and to meet us at A&E. By the end of this brief call, I said I was starting to feel dizzy and sick so would see him at the hospital. The call probably only took about 30 seconds. This was all about 15 to 20 minutes after the sting. I got myself to the passenger seat of Ann’s car where I sat and almost immediately passed out.

Ann managed to rouse me, had Sally call an ambulance and manged to get me into the house. She positioned me on the floor with my feet up and elevated on cushions. She hauled off my bee suit, loosened the clothing around my neck and waist and took off my boots and kneeled by my side to wait for the ambulance. I was by this time returning to consciousness but was quite slow thinking, felt incredibly cold and very shaky. Ann was amazing at keeping talking calmly to me whilst we waited. She covered me in a blanket. She updated my husband to come to Sally’s whilst we waited for the ambulance. I had no real idea of time passing. It did seem to take some time though as I began to feel a little better and Ann indicated the time. I knew the piriton had been in my system for at least 30 minutes and by then had time to get to work on me which was probably helping. The ambulance crews, (yes there were two as the first had got lost!) arrived at last.My husband had passed them on the road and directed them in.

Fortunately, I was improving – thanks to piriton and I guess very healthy adrenal glands. I now realise the shaking was from my body pumping out adrenaline. I was checked over by the ambulance attendant and left to get home myself but to monitor for signs of returning symptoms. I felt very shaken for many days after this.

Over to Ann now.

Ann’s Account of Events.

Thank you for sharing this personal account of a terrifying experience, Alison. You had no alternative but to put your trust in someone else at a crucial time. It must have been very scary for you. You were very calm and this made helping you very much easier.

When I came out to the car to drive you to hospital, I realised that you had gone into shock and my first reaction (after asking Sally to call the ambulance) was to get you lying flat with your legs elevated to try and raise your blood pressure. You were breathing normally, and your throat was not closing but you felt the sting and your face and neck were swelling. Your neck was to remain swollen for several days and you were knocked- for- six. Your lips were pale, but not blue, and your face was drained of all colour. You were cold and clammy.

I was very worried because I realised that the ambulance was taking a long time coming but I tried to hide my anxiety as I concentrated on getting you to breathe slowly, and keeping you calm to allow your body to rest after this shocking and completely draining experience.

I’d never seen red raised hives developing so fast before, or witnessed the intense itching which was driving you mad and had you raking your neck. This has been wake-up call to me to review the risks of such reactions in the future, beekeeping alone, and having a definite plan in place for a possible next time.

What3Words.

I’ve added the What3Words app to my phone and have documented the sets of words for all my apiaries. For people unfamiliar with this system, every 3 metres square in the world has been divided and identified by 3 unique words which are used in e-commerce, navigation, delivery systems, search and rescue, ambulance service and by many more organisations and individuals. I now tell friend how to find our house by using the 3 special words that brings them to the front gate if they have the app downloaded on their mobile phones. I need to take care with spelling and order of words to ensure that they don’t end up in Wagga Wagga Australia instead though.

Lessons learned:

1. Know your precise location – ambulance control often do not know our territory and rural apiaries can be hard to locate. Have clearly marked and visible at your apiary site the What3Words location. If possible, in a remote location, position someone at the road end to direct rescue services.

2. If you are close to hospital, and can, just drive the person in. Call the ambulance service to alert A&E, advise on car make colour and registration as they may meet you en route.

3. Carry piriton with you. It may have been helpful to have taken a second tablet – adults can easily tolerate an 8 mg dose, as this may be the only thing that you have with you.

4. The speed of the reaction is frighteningly quick when it starts. Do not take a bee sting lightly. The reaction can easily take up to 20 minutes to commence.

5. I had been stung several times before and despite moderate reaction, this had not happened previously.

6. Carry out beekeeping activities in company.

Personal Protection.

Richard covered this really well last week but if your bee suit veil gets too close to your face bees can easily sting through it. It happened to me once in the early days when I didn’t know how to a wash bee suit and veil correctly and the veil was washed out of shape. Now I place it in sleeve of my suit for protection, but some veils must be washed by hand. Wearing a hat like a baseball cap can help keep the veil away from your face.

Alison and I hope that this blog will be helpful to you but that you will never have to experience what we did.

We thank Sally for her part in helping call the ambulance and providing everything we needed to make Alison as comfortable as possible.