Mbombela family of five survive bee attack

Pretorius (32), his wife, Jorina (28), and their daughters, Rojandi (12), Juané (6) and Lienta (four months), were enjoying a nature-filled family drive through The Rest late when the swarm attacked.

“I had been to that same site that morning with a friend and there was not a sound of bees anywhere. When I drove with my family later that afternoon, we went through the exact spot I had visited in the morning,” he said.

“It was getting dark and Jorina said there was a bee in the car. I told her it was just a fly and tried to grab it. At that moment, a bee stung me in the eye, and before I really realised what was going on, my children were already screaming.”

Carl said the vehicle quickly became filled with the angry insects and the family scattered.

He said Rojandi ran off while his wife took the baby and their six-year-old away from the car.

“My wife shouted for me to get to water, so I grabbed the baby and told Juané to follow me. We ran to a nearby body of water. We made a shelter from the grass, and I started cleaning all the bees off Lienta.

“I took my shirt off and covered it in mud and water and wrapped her in it to protect her. I was still screaming for Jorina and Rojandi, but every time I did so, the bees became even more angry.”

Carl said the venom from the insects quickly started taking effect and soon he, his baby and Juané were all vomiting and hardly able to move.

“Lienta stopped breathing twice. I had to give her mouth-to-mouth.”

He said his wife tried to make her way back to the Land Cruiser, all the while being stung.
“We still didn’t know where Rojandi was and we were really panicked.”

Carl said he spent at least a full 15 minutes completely engulfed by bees. “I couldn’t hear anything except that roaring of the swarm.”

In the meantime, Rojandi had found a farmhouse and managed to call on an “oom” for help. 

ER24 spokesperson, Ross Campbell said in a press statement that the oom had sprayed Rojandi with water to get some of the bees off and then told her to jump into the pool while he called emergency services.

“An ER24 paramedic came to the vlei, took the children from me and rushed off to the ambulance. He found my wife who was back at the Land Cruiser trying to call for help,” said Carl.

He said they all went off to hospital and everyone is doing fine. “I am feeling so grateful the whole family survived. It’s hard to explain, but it is like we are all so much closer and love one another 100 times more. You realise what is important.”

Carl said Lienta had around 50 stings, while Rojandi and Juané had around 500 between them. The couple had more than 
1 000 bee stings between them.

“I pulled out 50 stingers from my ear and 150 from my arm. Rojandi and Juané had a few stings in their mouths and our baby had one in her throat.

“The doctors and paramedics who saw to us said they don’t know how we survived. The statistics for these type of attacks show that we should have died.”

Carl said he and his family were “so grateful to the doctors, paramedics and the community who came together to help them”.
“It is so heartening to see how everyone rallied behind us and helped. We didn’t ask them to, but everyone was incredibly supportive.”

He added that he was particularly grateful to the ER24 paramedic who arrived at the scene in a fire suit to help save the family.
“He is still keeping in contact with us. He told us that he had had three previous bee attack cases where the patient died and is shocked that we survived.”

“We all feel so indebted to the doctors, the community and the paramedics for our lives. Everyone has been so supportive and we thank you all so much,” he said.

The Pretoriuses are still at Nelspruit Mediclinic under observation to ensure venom levels do not damage any organs and so on.
Carl said the family was doing well and his children had started smiling again despite the swelling from the bee stings.

Original post – 11 Jan 2021

A Mbombela family of five, including a baby girl, are lucky to be alive after family members were stung thousands of times by a swarm of furious bees near The Rest yesterday afternoon.

Their survival has been deemed “an absolute miracle” by an ER24 paramedic, who asked not to be named and who had been on the scene, saying not many people survived a mass of bee stings, let alone an entire family.

It is believed that the family – a mother, father, and three daughters (a baby, toddler and 12-year-old girl) – had been enjoying an afternoon drive through the veld near The Rest when they accidently drove over a nest of bees which swarmed around the car and flew into the open windows.

ER24 spokesperson Ross Campbell said during the panic, the oldest daughter managed to run to a nearby farmhouse to call for help, all the while being continuously stung and chased by the swarm.

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Campbell said the young girl managed to summon an “oom” from the farmhouse who quickly sprayed her with water to try get some of the bees off her.

He then told the girl to jump into the pool and quickly dialed emergency services before heading out to look for the rest of her family.

Campbell said the man drove down to see if he could find the others, but had to turn back because of the unrelenting swarm.

When the ER24 paramedic arrived at the scene, he suited up in his fire gear in an attempt to avoid getting stung and went out to search for the family.

Campbell said the father was heard screaming for help from a vlei where he had waded into the water with his toddler and baby in an attempt to escape the bees.

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“Our medic managed to get close enough to grab the baby and toddler and race back to the farmhouse, handing them directly to the ambulance crew which rushed them through to hospital.

“The oldest daughter had also been taken through to hospital for further treatment. More ER24 paramedics arrived at the scene. They returned to the vlei for the father and managed to find the mother who had run back to their car in all the panic.”

Speaking to Lowvelder about the incident, the ER24 paramedic said most people died after being stung so many times by bees.

“The family had thousands of bee stings collectively. 

“People do not normally survive that number of stings. This case is completely out of the norm. I have been to three other bee swarm cases in the past and the people who were attacked died.

“It is a miracle that all five of them survived. They have the Lord to thank,” said the paramedic.

He added that the family were stable when he had left the hospital on Sunday.