NH Tree Worker Stung Hundreds Of Times After Disturbing Bees
MANCHESTER, N.H. (CBS) – A New Hampshire tree worker was stung by hundreds of bees after he disturbed a large nest.
The Manchester worker was cutting down trees Thursday in the aftermath of a storm earlier in the week. He was harnessed into a bucket several feet off the ground when the bees swarmed him and stung him more than 200 times.
A coworker tried to help the man and was stung several times. Several neighbors then rushed in to help as well. In total, six people were stung hundreds of times.
The Park and Rec worker's manager says his colleague is alive thanks to a nearby resident who heard cries for help and rushed over to the tree to help while dodging bees himself.
"He was just hanging there and the bees were just having a field day on him," said Randy Graham, who rushed to help the man and was stung about 30 times. "It didn't phase me I was more interested in helping him."
Graham unhooked him from the bucket and brought him over to house to hose him down.
The worker was taken to the hospital in stable condition. Don Pinard, the Director of the Parks and Rec Department, says his employee was stung in the head chest and arms and was very swollen when he visited him at the hospital.
"The nurse in the emergency room told me he was very, very, lucky," Pinard said. "When I was in the room with him there was three people working on him that were actually with tweezers pulling the stingers out of him. They said they lost count after a hundred something."
A 62-year-old neighbor was driven to the hospital by a family member. He is in stable condition as well.
An exterminator cleared away the nest and made the area safe.
