I am the cousin of the wasp and the bee, I am 35 millimeters long on average, I am not aggressive but my sting is very painful because my stinger goes deep, my venom is not fatal.. . I am I am ? Bingo: the hornet.
While the vast majority of bites inflicted by hornets are harmless to health (in 70% of cases there is only slight swelling of the area, accompanied by redness), sometimes the consequences can be serious: thus, this Sunday, June 18, 2017, a 43-year-old man fell into a coma after being stung by a vespa crabro, or European hornet.
Resident in Allier (03), the man suffered a serious allergic reaction after his sting: he was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Roanne hospital (department of the Loire) in a condition deemed “very worrying by doctors. Concretely, the sting would have caused a sharp drop in tension, which would have caused significant damage to the brain. To this day, the man is still in a coma.
A rare but serious allergic reaction
“Each year, we have one or two cases of a serious wasp sting”, indicates Thomas Guérin, head of emergencies at Roanne hospital, interviewed by our colleagues from Progrès. “From the first symptoms, you have to dial 15. And while waiting for help, the advice is to lie down, put cold on the bite, legs in the air. »
When the local swelling exceeds 10 cm in diameter and/or the symptoms (redness, pain, swelling) are still present after 12 hours, a visit to the hospital is necessary. Ditto if the bite was inflicted in the throat, mouth or eyes, or if it is a multiple bite.
Read also :
He dies after two Asian hornet bites
A nest of Asian hornets discovered for the first time in Paris
Bees, wasps… we defend ourselves naturally
