After being hospitalised for over a month following a brutal attack, a woman from Queensland has issued a warning to holidaymakers.
When swimming at the shore of Zen Beach on the island of Ko Pha Ngan during a vacation in October, 23-year-old Zoe Cahill was left in excruciating pain.
She had very certainly been stung by a box jellyfish based on her injuries.
“I thought I saw what looked like little bits of plastic in the ocean and within seconds this jellyfish stung me,” she recalled.
“It literally felt like electricity had shot through my body.”
After leaving Bedesseurt, the 23-year-old travelled unaccompanied for the first time to South-east Asia, where she travelled between Bali and Thailand while instructing yoga.
She claimed that for a few months, she had been swimming in Ko Pha Ngan without any issues.
However, she was swimming about 50 metres off the coast that day when “my body just felt like it was vibrating.”
“The adrenaline kicked in, although my memory is still patchy, I actually managed to get myself back to shore,” Cahill stated.
It appears from what onlookers have told her that she made it back before giving way and going blue.
She remembered how a nurse was doing CPR on her as a throng of roughly fifteen people rushed to her help and doused her with vinegar bottles.
Cahill thinks the vinegar that was put all over her prevented her from getting worse.
“I was in tears.” I was shouting and didn’t know what was going on,” Cahill remarked.
After being taken to the nearby hospital in Ko Pha Ngan, she was met by a friend.
Following tests, medical professionals informed her that she would require immediate speedboat transportation to the next island of Ko Samui.
“She needs an antihistamine because her white blood cells are growing quickly and we don’t have the resources to treat her,” the doctor informed my buddy.
She was seen by a Bangkok-based marine toxicologist at the next island, but the language barrier prevented her from fully understanding what was happening.
She claimed that she spent more than a month in the hospital and that her severe stings prevented her from walking for two weeks.
She still has a complex network of scars on her body, and she has been sharing updates about her recuperation on Instagram.
“I’m scarred all over my body, everywhere you look there’s a mark,” she stated.
“But I’m grateful to be here today.”
Now that she’s back home, she wants to spread the word about the risks associated with jellyfish attacks, especially when national temperatures start to unexpectedly rise.
She was speaking of the recent surge in Irukandji stings off the coast of Queensland. “I saw the stories on Fraser Island (K’gari)-it really sparked my attention,” she said.
“I doubt that many individuals are aware.
“I had no idea these types of jellyfish were so close to the island.”
