Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Last Saturday I was stung on the back of my neck by a ' donkey bee ' , the first time this has happened in 17 years of living in the TRNC.

Within 5 minutes I started to feel quite strange , I seemed to be loosing concentration.
I then started shaking, my skin was burning and I was having difficulty breathing and talking.
My husband carried me to the car , before I could get in I violently vomited 6/7 times. We drove through the valley and I lost all vision , I said to my husband " I can't see you , I can't see the road , I can't see the fields ! All I saw was bright , bright lightness.
I was taken to the doctors in Mehmetcik who sounded my chest , took my blood pressure, pulse and oxygen levels. He administered an injection in each buttock.
I was put back in the car and taken to Mehmetcik clinic where the ambulance was waiting.
The paramedics took me into the clinic , took readings again , attached electrodes to my chest and inserted an IV line into my arm , I was then connected to an oxygen machine . I don't know how long I was there before being put into the ambulance. I remember my husband saying " Liz , you have wet yourself " ; the paramedics were smiling at me and gesturing that it was ok .
I was ' blue lighted ' to Famagusta State Hospital where medics were waiting for me.
Different srynges were fed into the IV . I stayed on the drip for about 4 hours. At one point my body seemed to be jumping about all over the bed. I was told I was going to have a ' little sleep ' which I did.
Gradually everything seemed more relaxed , the shaking , burning skin and breathing all became normal again.
I had suffered anaphylactic shock which without very prompt medical attention would have been FATAL !

Everyone please be AWARE and take immediate action if you are stung !

At the moment I am in the UK visiting my children/ grand children . A flight taken that last Saturday could not have happened without the amazing support and knowledge from the Doctor/ Mehmetcik Paramedics and A&E Famagusta , they saved my life !

Can I please just ask everyone if they know of anyone who has been prescribed with an epi pen in the TRNC or even if I can source one there ?

Stay Alive and Kicking and be AWARE of what a ' donkey bee ' sting can result in !

Xx

Looks like you had a narrow escape, thanks for sharing.

Gosh you were so lucky! I am allergic to any bee stings and have been warned that my next sting could be fatal. As far as I am aware you still can't buy an epi pen here. I brought mine from the UK and keep it in the fridge and thankfully haven't had to use it although it is now probably out of date! However if you are unfortunate to get stung again just make sure you or whoever is with you asks for adrenaline and should do the trick.

Just googled this Bee and there are so many types of bees , but not really telling you which one it is, maybe some one clever could post a pic of this bee please ...

Yes Geroff, what is a Donkey Bee please

It is basically a hornet, bright yellow and brown. They are very aggressive and will attack if threatened.

Esek Arisi in google image search shows something more like a wasp than a trditional Bee.

If you google it as I did, many different images come up for Donkey Bee, so I am no further from knowing which type of Bee stung lizzyball, if lizzyball could actually identify which image she was stung by, it certainly would be good ...

My understanding is that it is a Turkish Hornet. It is large in comparison with other insects and lives usually near the sea.
There are lots or them and can be very vicious if attacked or disturbed.

I also have experienced a few anaphylactic shock episodes. I was advised always to keep Piriton to hand and use it immediately as well as getting to the hospital ASAP. My advice would be to speak to a pharmacist in the UK to see about the viability of an epi-pen. Be aware also that each subsequent A/S episode will be more rapid and worse than the previous. Girne state hospital A&E were wonderful during my last episode.

pc4854 wrote:My understanding is that it is a Turkish Hornet. It is large in comparison with other insects and lives usually near the sea.
There are lots or them and can be very vicious if attacked or disturbed.

That was my understanding too, as in Turkish hornet. Sounds like the op had a lucky escape!

They are very attracted to the smell of coffee. I've also seen them take off with small cat biscuits. The ones I've seen look like this

Thank you come on Eileen, we began to think it was the big hornets that are always coming to the swimming pools for water, but from memory they look like the hornets we get here in GB and are not aggressive ...

The pic of this Bee has more brown on its body, so will take care if and when we see one ...