Pretoria man (80) in ICU after bee swarm attack

A Pretoria man is recovering in ICU after being attacked by a swarm of bees in Contantia Park on Friday.

Derek Palmer (80) went to assist a lady in Verdi Street who wanted the bees removed.

As the 80-year-old was trying to assess the situation the bees attacked him.

“He went and had a look. He moved the grass with his crutch just to have a look at how many bees there were and where they were to evaluate how they could be removed,” said Palmer’s daughter Candice Beukes.

“Unfortunately the people had already been cutting the grass, so I think the bees were already a bit agitated.

“After he turned and walked away from where the bees were, they attacked him.”

Beukes said while her father was trying to get away from the bees towards his vehicle, he instructed the lady he had been helping and her neighbour to contact the fire department who would hopefully be able to chase the bees with an extinguisher.

In the meantime he asked them to get a hosepipe and spray him with water.

When none of that was happening, Palmer ran to his car and started the engine.

“The engine was running and there were fumes coming out of the exhaust, so he laid under his bakkie so all the fumes can chase away the bees.

“At that point two bee handlers, who were driving into that street at that moment, realised there was something going on.

“They initially thought it was flies, but when they realised it was bees they went to put on their outfits and came back to assist my father.”

All geared up the two men came to Palmer’s rescue. They switched off his car, picked him up from the ground and drove him to Kloof hospital.

At the hospital Palmer was found to have between 300 to 500 bee stings.

“When I spoke to the unit manager at the ER she said she had never seen so many stings. Usually people come in with 10 or 12 stings, but they think that my dad had between 300 and 500 stings.

“He had stings in his nose, on his lips and his head was full of stings. The only part that didn’t have stings were his legs for some unknown reason.

“But he was pretty much covered from the top of his head to midway down his chest with bee stings.”

From the ER, Palmer was admitted to the ICU where he was being treated.

Beukes said the big concern with a bee attack like this was that there was a large amount of poison in the body that could possibly affect his organs.

“Fortunately, my dad is not allergic to bees otherwise he would have gone into anaphylactic shock and died. But they were worried about his kidneys and his heart.

“He has been on quite strong medication and is still in ICU. He is responsive and is getting better.”

Beukes said her dad was no stranger to handling bees as he had over 30 years’ experience. A few days before the attack he and a friend had gone to assist someone with removing bees in the area.

She said her dad was recovering well in hospital and thanked the two bee handlers for saving her father’s life.

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