My real-life experience with jellyfish stings: What worked and what didn’t

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My real-life experience with jellyfish stings: What worked and what didn't

With recent box jellyfish sightings in Singapore, CNA Lifestyle's Khoo Bee Khim recalls her previous stinging experience in Australia and lists down some handy communication. Calling 995, yes. Peeing on information technology? Maybe not.

23 Oct 2022 06:30AM (Updated: 08 Aug 2022 12:15AM)

I still remember two things from my brush with jellyfish years agone. Offset, a horrific pain that felt like the worst caning of my life (yeah, I was a naughty child so I do take a benchmark).

The second was me shouting at the elevation of my terrified lungs: "You are non peeing on me!"

I was at a beach at the Gold Coast in Australia, and being the foolhardy student that I was dorsum so, I waded into the water, despite warnings of box jellyfish sightings in the news.

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I idea: The ocean is and then large. Can't be and then unlucky to encounter one, right?

I was proven wrong mere minutes in waist-deep water. A translucent blob the size of a lawn tennis brawl drifted a metre or so from me (cue: the Jaws theme rails).

I later read that different other jellyfish that migrate with the ocean'southward currents, the box jellyfish really has eyes and tin swim up to a speed of four knots – or the equivalent of 7km/h on state.

Merely caught between the powerful Pacific Ocean surf and a block of homo idiocy that was me, information technology couldn't swim away.

My exposed thighs bore the brunt of the contact. Instantly, it felt like someone had sliced them with fiery-hot blades, then slashed them again for good mensurate. My brain was flooded with so many pain signals, specks of white flickered into my view, melded and Liquid-Papered out my vision.

For a few moments, my brain merely couldn't procedure anything else or react – not even cry out.

Depending on the species of box jellyfish, yous may experience symptoms almost immediately or fifty-fifty upwards to xv to twenty minutes after being stung.

After what felt similar an eternity in the sea, I hobbled dorsum to the shore crying and with blue, thread-like tentacles still clinging to my thighs.

"Jellyfish! Jellyfish!" I gasped to my friends, in between shock-induced, breath-sucking sobs.

WHAT WORKS, WHAT DOESN'T

Now older and with a twenty-four hours job that entails writing about all things health-related, the recent news about box jellyfish sightings in Singapore's beaches got me thinking about that 24-hour interval: What I should or shouldn't have done later being stung.

It'south still not clear to me whether it was the deadly variety or a lesser 1 (information technology was the flavour for box jellyfish though), but either way, I count myself lucky.

Anyhow, no i emptied his or her float onto me that day – and it turns out, I was right to insist "no thanks".

"In that location is no evidence to show that peeing on the sting site will help and it may cause more than venom to be released," said Dr Julian Ng, a full general practitioner from DTAP Dispensary Group.

Forget as well near using alcohol, ethanol or ammonia, advised Mayo Clinic. Instead, apply plain vinegar to the area for 30 seconds to deactivate the cells that secrete the venom, said Dr Ng.

"Practice non use an ice pack, and practise not apply force per unit area bandages as these may trigger further toxin belch."

From feel, fresh water doesn't lessen the pain either. My friends emptied every receptacle of drinking h2o onto me only that offered no relief.

Every bit information technology turned out, fresh water might have triggered the release of more venom if the tentacles were still embedded in the pare, according to Healthline.

At that place is no bear witness to show that peeing on the sting site volition aid and may cause more venom to be released.

Another thing I shouldn't have done was endeavour to rub the tentacles off my skin. The key, co-ordinate to Dr Ng, was to selection at it with a towel or gloved hand, not rub or scrape them off.

Rubbing could cause the sting cells to inject even more venom into your body, which certainly made my red, angry welts redder and angrier.

IN HOT H2o

A lifeguard, whom my friend went to go help from, had urged me to get into a hot bathroom pronto. What? Was he mad? My flesh had already felt like it was melting off my thighs and he wanted me to get into hot water. Equally if I wasn't in information technology already, well, figuratively.

The peculiar thing well-nigh box jellyfish stings (at least from my experience), is the hurting doesn't lessen, even after an hour of being stung.

Embankment outing cutting short, we hightailed back to Brisbane, an agonising 60 minutes or so drive away. I shouldn't have doubted the lifeguard. It took a while, including hovering over a bathtub of hot h2o, only finally, sweet relief! Mind you, this only brought downward the hurting intensity from a x to a seven but I took it!

For the same corporeality of venom, children, by virtue of the fact that they are smaller, are more probable to dice.

I later read that hot water can indeed neutralise the venom. Mayo Clinic suggested soaking the afflicted area for 20 to 45 minutes in water that'south 43 to 45 degrees Celsius.

If you don't have a thermometer, the water should feel hot, not scalding, to your paw or elbow. If y'all've been to the foot soak at Sembawang Hot Jump Park, that'due south how hot the water should be.

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I remember that modest bits of tentacles refused to let go of my peel fifty-fifty a few days later the incident, then during that time, some parts of my welts had thin blue strips down the eye. Eventually (make that several months), the crazy, red patterns that looked like a toddler's scribbles faded away.

HOW AM I STILL Live?

So back to Singapore. Should this happen here, call 995 after getting the victim out of the water, advised National Parks (NParks), which noted that "stings covering more than half of 1 limb are considered life threatening".

A warning sign for box jellyfish on Pulau Ubin taken on Oct xv, 2020.

Co-ordinate to NParks, the "severity of symptoms vary with the victim'due south condition and caste of stinging". Depending on the species of box jellyfish, you may experience symptoms "almost immediately or even up to 15 to xx minutes after being stung".

It further advised that information technology's best to monitor the victim for at least 45 minutes after getting out of the water.

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Box jellyfish stings are certainly painful simply are they always fatal? As unbearable as the episode was, I was lucky I wasn't stung in the eye or mouth, which would have been more than serious, or have life-threatening symptoms such every bit the ones Dr Ng highlighted beneath:

Difficulty breathing or swallowing
A change in vocalisation
Feeling more often than not unwell
Nauseated or airsickness
Giddy or has a headache
Musculus spasms

"It depends on the amount of venom that the person comes into contact with," said Dr Ng. "For the same amount of venom, children, past virtue of the fact that they are smaller, are more likely to die."

He explained that the sting is more likely to cause expiry if the total estimated length of welts is over 70cm.

My real-life experience with jellyfish stings: What worked and what didn’t

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