Austin Bellamy was medically induced into a coma and put on a ventilator
A man has been hospitalised after being brutally stung by more than 20,000 African killer bees while attempting to prune a tree.
Austin Bellamy is fighting for his life after ingesting more than 30 of them and being stung by thousands more. According to his uncle, Dustin Edwards, the 20-year-old was trying to trim a lemon tree with his grandmother, Phyllis Edwards, when the incident happened on August 26.
Bellamy’s mother, Shawna Carter, told FOX News that she was overwhelmed when she received the phone call.
“It was just too much for me to take. It looked like he had a black blanket on his head down to his neck, down to his arms,” she said.
Edwards told the outlet that the bees attacked when her grandson began trimming the branches.
He tried to anchor himself down, and he couldn’t,” she recalled. “He was hollering, ‘Help! Help me! Help!’ And nobody would help him.”
“He was hollering, ‘Help! Help me! Help!’ And nobody would help him,” said Phyllis Edwards.
Tonight at 10 on @FOX19 hear from the mother who says her son was stung by at least 20,000 bees. pic.twitter.com/GcglNBKX35
— Payton Marshall (@paytontvnews) August 31, 2022
“I was going to try and climb the ladder to get to Austin. I seen how high he was. But I couldn’t get to him because I was surrounded in bees,” she added.
An air ambulance was quick to arrive and transported Bellamy to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he was medically induced into a coma and put on a ventilator.
He woke up on August 31.
“When I think of Craig, Craig is a lifesaver,” Bellamy’s mother, Shawna Carter, said, thanking Craig and the wider Ripley Fire Department. “He’s Austin’s angel. He saved Austin’s life.”
Carter has since set up a GoFundMe where she wrote: “Austin just turned 20 in August 7 and on August 27 he was in a tragic tree accident where he was doing tree work for a friend and cut a lemon, cut right into a nest of African killer bees.
“[He] was stung over 20,000 times and is in the hospital currently on a ventilator and fighting for his life and we are asking for any donations just anything will help thank you and God bless.”
Bellamy is expected to make a full recovery.
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