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Rachel Shardlow had accidentally tangled with a box jellyfish in the Calliope River near Gladstone, Australia in December. The 10-year-old girl survived after she had been stung by one of the world’s most venomous and deadliest creatures, the box jellyfish. According to Jaymie Seymour, who is a zoology and tropical ecology associate professor at James Cook University, more often than not, people ended up in a morgue when they have been stung by box jellyfish with that number of the tentacle contacts on their body, seldom do people survive in such cases. The box jellyfish didn’t just sting the little girl, but it had enveloped her. Its tentacles were found wrapped around her limbs and wouldn’t let go. She couldn’t see nor breathe. The creature had wrapped its tentacles even tighter and knocked the child unconscious. The creature is capable of killing an adult in just four minutes. Seymour said that so far he hasn’t known anybody in the entire literature where they have studied this where someone had survived after having such extensive sting. When he first saw the pictures of the injuries, it was unbelievable that the kid had managed to survive. After several weeks of being in the hospital, Shardlow is still feeling the effects but the fact that she’s feeling anything at all is a good sign of her good prognosis. Her family said that aside from scarring and memory loss, she is doing well. Seymour and other Queensland researchers obtained a $40,000 grant to investigate how lethal is the venom of Irukandji and its relative box jellyfish. They will also seek for treatments to help victims like Sharlow who are stung by these creatures. According to a guide to sea creatures posted on the Great Barrier Reef site, the jellyfish which is often found in the Great Barrier Reef can have more or less 15 tentacles on each corner of its bodies with nearly 5,000 cells. Girl Survived After A Venomous Sting From A Box Jellyfish is a post from: Daily World Buzz Continue reading →