In Australia, a ten-year-old schoolgirl surprised doctors, because the girl was able to survive even after the burn of one of the most poisonous creatures in the world - the so-called box jellyfish. This predator even has eyes to search for prey
According to doctors, the schoolgirl's recovery looks incredible. Now scientists intend to carefully study her body in the hope of developing an antidote. Usually, a person dies after such a bite within three minutes.
At the time of the attack by the fearsome watery creature in December 2009, Rachel Shardalow was swimming at the mouth of the Calliope River in Queensland. The 13-year-old brother of the girl came to her aid in time and pulled her sister ashore. The baby said that she could not see anything and it was difficult for her to breathe. A moment later, the schoolgirl lost consciousness.
The Box Jelly fish burn is so painful that victims often go into shock and drown or die of cardiac arrest. The poison affects the nervous system and skin, causing terrible pain throughout the body. There is no means to help a person in such a state.
However, Rachel survived contrary to all predictions. The girl was unconscious for half an hour and was taken to the hospital in a coma, TourGenius.ru reports. However, after six weeks of treatment, the schoolgirl recovered so much that the doctors discharged her home.
The girl's father said that his daughter briefly lost her memory, but generally recovered. Rachel's family feared that the jellyfish burned her brain, but this did not happen.
Jamie Seymour, a professor of ecology at James Cook University, is amazed at the child's miraculous recovery. Usually such meetings with jellyfish end in death even for an adult. The last case of death was registered here in 2006. Many beaches close in Queensland every year from October to April, when jellyfish are especially active.
Vinegar helps with burns
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Cubomedusa got its name from the cubic shape of its bell-body. The tentacles of the jellyfish can stretch up to three meters in length. Most often box jellyfish appear in the water after rain and mainly along the coast. They feed on small fish and invertebrates, having previously paralyzed them.
Box jellyfish are active swimmers and are capable of moving at speeds up to 6 meters per minute. Some representatives have the ability to move in the direction of light.
Although box jellyfish are active throughout the day, they feed mainly in the evening twilight and at night. In the process of their nutrition, vision plays an important role. The prey of the jellyfish, captured by tentacles and affected by stinging cells, is moved to the mouth by contraction of the tentacles. After that, the jellyfish is located in the water vertically (with the mouth opening up or down) and absorbs food.
One jellyfish can sting 60 people in a row. The rainy season in tropical Australia (October-March) coincides with the jellyfish activation period. Therefore, on all beaches there are warning signs, protective nets are stretched and you can swim in the sea only in a strictly defined area, and even then not always.
If a box jellyfish stung a person, then the likelihood of his salvation is small: most often the person falls into shock from unbearable pain even before he can get to the shore. Therefore, it is recommended to swim with someone in the company and prepare vinegar on the shore in advance for first aid. Bottles of vinegar can also be found hanging from the trees on the beaches. Jellyfish burns can only be watered with vinegar. On the contrary, in no case should you treat the lesions with alcohol or alcohol.
In severe situations, the victim needs to be given artificial respiration. In any case, the victim must be urgently taken to the hospital.
When sailing on reefs far from the coast, it is advised to wear a rubber suit - "stinger": it protects well from jellyfish burns. However, statistics show that out of the many millions of tourists visiting the Australian Great Barrier Reef, 50-60 people per year fall prey to box jellyfish.