Killer Earth
Killer Earth
Box Jellyfish: Part II
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Kat and Vanessa hear Dana Kelly Gillan's survival story about the time she was attacked by an Australian box jellyfish off the coast of North Carolina.
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SPEAKER_02Hey guys, this is part two of our box jellyfish series. We're going to be talking to my friend Dana and hear her very scary encounter with a box jellyfish in the waters off of North Carolina. I heard this story many, many years ago. So the details were a little fuzzy to me until Dana retold her story for us. And wow, guys, it is crazy. Buckle up for this one. Um, her name is Dana. And she actually, I reached out to her because I remembered her telling me a story about how she was, I believe, surfing. And I actually am not sure if she was attacked by box jellyfish. We're gonna find out. But she was yeah, she was attacked by jellyfish and I believe was hospitalized. I I kind of remember the story. I was probably drinking heavily at the time when she told me like 15 years ago, but we're gonna have her on. She's gonna call in and she's gonna give us the story. She's gonna call in. Yes, and I'm so excited. Yay! This is so awesome. Survivor alert. Yeah, we're we're getting these survivor stories in.
SPEAKER_03I I love a saliva a saliva.
SPEAKER_02I love a saliva story. It is like saliva story over here. Okay, it really is. So let's take a break and let's talk to Dana. So we have my friend Dana joining us now to tell uh her story about her uh encounter with some jellyfish.
SPEAKER_00Hi. Hi, Dana. Thank you for having me. Yeah, thanks for joining.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so um set the scene for us. Where were you? What were you doing? What happened?
SPEAKER_01All right, so um we were actually a group of my friends and I used to over the summers, um, when we were on break from college, we would all pool resources and all join together and uh rent a beach house for a couple weeks down in the Outer Banks in North Carolina. And um it was awesome. I mean, as many people could as could fit, you know, people everywhere. Uh we took very good care though. We were always respectful, and so we were always able to come back. Um, and the beach was just a short walk, which is actually a really good thing for my story. Um, but it it was out on one of the islands out there, and um we would get up early and we would go out to the beach, and um there was surfing, there's football, there was, I mean, we did, we just played and hung out as much as we could. And one day we were all out there and we'd just gotten to the beach, and um when it was several days into the trip, I believe, we had uh gotten to the beach house on the island right after a hurricane had come through. So this was in 03, and I guess we could look up, I can't remember right now off the top of my head which hurricane had come through. Yeah, I know I can't remember things from yesterday sometimes now, but I know anyway. So we were actually just out tossing the football around at this point, and um I was uh out there up to like my chin, you know, getting smacked in the face by waves, and uh uh luckily I had a t-shirt on over um my string bikini. And uh that is a very important part of the later story, less surface area was exposed. So uh I was out there and I was having a hard time because the t-shirt was kind of annoying me. And one of our friends was going underwater and like messing with everybody, you know, like pinching people's legs and goofing around and um just freaking people out. And I felt something brushing my leg with a wave, and then when it went back out the undertow a little bit, I looked up and I saw him, but he was like, I don't know, 10 or 15 feet away. And I was like, oh, that's weird. Because I I yelled at him and I was looking, you know, I was looking around, and he we made eye contact, and it it was really only seconds that it took for both of us to to realize it wasn't him. We kind of did a head count and uh another wave came. And at that point, you know, we we just were still our eyes were locked, and and mine I you know, I just felt them get huge because I felt something suddenly hit me like square in the chest, like a football. And it wasn't the football, and I immediately like put my hands like I grabbed it. Oh no, yeah. Well, that wasn't the part that was the bad part, was like the body part. It was so weird, it was the strangest feeling in my hands, and it wasn't small. And when the wave had come and it knocked it into my chest, uh, this is all below the surface. Um, the the tentacles wrapped around my oh, I'm shaking just thinking about wrapped around my arms and my legs, like all the way down to my my feet. Um, I even had marks down to my toes. We had to get my to-ring off of my toe. There were marks on my toes. So it was, it was chest high, and I'm about five, five, five, five, six. And then um when I was holding hands, the were then working with me, and I I shoved it, I like threw it off of me, but half the tentacles, I don't know, like detached or ripped off and were like wrapped around me.
SPEAKER_03Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01Like my neck, and uh as soon as I had caught it in my hands and it wrapped around me, the wave pressed us together, and I was going backwards toward the shore. I was still kind of my friend and a couple of our other friends were then aware that something wasn't right, and I was like, I was like, get out of the water, I got stung, I'm getting stung, and that was all I can remember then, except for the feeling, which I can only describe as being um like electrocuted, but also lit on fire. Oh my god, it was horrific, it was absolutely horrific, and I don't I don't know how I know now, uh I knew after that my friend uh Nate and then my friend Ben, who I thought was messing with me, he had started swimming hard towards me once he realized that it was not a person, that something was wrong. Uh we didn't know what it was at first, and I knew then it was it had to be a jelly. And um they dragged me, they got me to the shore, I guess. I don't remember um uh what they did. I guess they laid me down on a towel, um, and there were still tentacles all over me. I don't know if I was shaking or or what. And I I know afterwards I had seen my one friend who scooped me up and carried me to the beach house because they had to call 911. And this is 03, like not everybody had cell phones like you do now. We didn't want them on the beach. If anybody had one, it was like you know, we weren't interested in that. Everybody we cared about were hanging out with and was right there, so right.
SPEAKER_03So, like the last person, the last thing you kind of remember after you got stung is being dragged in and then seeing your friend scoop you up.
SPEAKER_01Like, were you going unconscious or were you I don't know if I flapped out, like the pain and the shock to my system was so immense that uh like the last thing I do remember is shouting out to everybody, get out of the water. And then they they had me, and and then I don't know. I I just they told me later that you know they were joking like halfway when somebody ran over and was like, Do we pee on her? And I was like, No, but I don't remember no, I was adamant, like no. Um my friend Nate just basket carried, he scooped me up, they tell me, and and uh carried me to the beach house. And anywhere I had touched him, because I had the tentacles wrapped in between my fingers, they were like stuck in my rings. Um oh my god, a beaded curtain, like the marks he had hand prints on his arms and like shoulders, like anywhere I had grabbed onto person had these, they look like burn marks.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, wow.
SPEAKER_01It was all over me, those the beetred, you know, turned to almost magenta. Um but they got me to the beach house and they called 911 immediately. Somebody was doing that, and they said, You're out on the island, we're prepared for this. Uh, by the time we get there, you know, you're gonna have to do what we would do, you know. And this is not gonna sound like it's very medical, but there's every beach house is required to have a couple gallon jugs of distilled white vinegar.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Okay, yes. This is Kat and I were talking about this vinegar.
SPEAKER_03I learned this last night when you were recording.
SPEAKER_01It's a lifesaver. Um, and they said you gotta, you know, don't get modest. She's gonna strip down, you know, whoever can help her do this, get out of the clothes. Get as many of the tentacles if they're stuck, get them off of her.
SPEAKER_03And um, sorry, how do they get the tentacles off of you without getting burned? Like, did they were they just like so like frantic to get them off that like somebody was like taking them off with their own hands, or did they get like tweezers or like people didn't care?
SPEAKER_01My friend Nate, um, he just was in go mode and he's uh Nate, what a hero. Yeah, he's a lifesaver. He didn't even think about it. He was the one who was covered the most in burns, and um, he just was ripping them off of me and getting everything off of me. And he had me um, they said you have to soak as many bath towels or beach towels, like whatever you have in this vinegar as you can, and you know, lay something down on the bed, and then have her lay on the bed wrapped in these towels, these towels soaked in vinegar. And um, somebody's gotta get uh like a package of Benadryl and a container of meat tenderizer powder.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Are are the beach houses required to have those two things as well?
SPEAKER_01Um, I don't know if they're required to, but they definitely weren't there. So they said, well, as long as the vinegar on her and she's like drenched from to toes, you know, wherever it was on her, um, minus the t-shirt outline, thank goodness, because that was less skin that got it. Um, and uh they somebody ran to the corner store or whatever and grabbed the tenderizer powder, the meat tenderizer powder, and the um Benadryl. And they were like, you have to give her a whole blister pack of Benadryl. And that was scary. Um, and then after a couple of hours with the towels and vinegar, I mean, I at that point I don't I don't recall. I I have one moment of coming to in the bed, um, and it was dark in there, and uh my friend Nate was in the chair, like nearby, probably exhausted and feeling like crap himself. And uh like I went back out, but after a few hours with the towels, they were supposed to make a paste out of the meat tenderizer powder and um water. And I don't remember if they were like specific that the water had to be distilled water or I feel like it was something complicated, but it I don't know. Like it couldn't be salt water, it had to be salt water, couldn't be salt water, I don't know. Anyways, they they were supposed to cover me with the paste of this stuff and then use the back side of a butter knife and scrape my skin to get the nematicists out. Oh I told them apparently that if they came anywhere near me to try to scrape my skin, I would take the butter knife and there would be homicide. But so nobody touched me with the butter knife, and that actually was a really bad thing. Um, that that is what ended up getting me um in trouble, believe it or not, a couple weeks later, which is why this saga dragged out for so darn long because I was stubborn and I didn't just bite the bullet. But I uh I after a couple days was able to walk around and move around again, and I looked, I had like welts, I looked, it was horrible. And then I had to drive my car back up to New York by myself. Oh, and um, yeah. So I got to the college campus as the sun was rising and the college health center was opening, and it incidentally was where I was working. I had a a student job there, and so they knew me, and I like dragged myself in there and almost collapsed, and it had flared up again because the nematocists were still in my skin and in my system, and the toxins were still, I guess, pumping through me.
SPEAKER_03Now, wait, what are the nematicins the things like Vanessa? You were talking about yesterday where like they're the little splinters that stick in you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they're the little like capsules that get released. Oh, okay. Sorry, I just wanted to clarify.
SPEAKER_01They're are horrible little things, and uh they I guess well, my kidneys had trouble filtering things. Um, some of my ureters are thinner. My mom, it's a hereditary thing. So I wasn't filtering the toxins as well as I could, anyways. And when I made it to the college campus and basically collapsed in the health center, they gave me um, they called the hospital just to back up, and nobody up there knew what to do, you know, like what the heck? So they gave me prednisone, like humongous doses of it to stop the allergic reaction and antibiotic. Is that like a benadryl? Like the same thing, it's a steroidal thing, it's not it's for inflammation, okay. Yeah, and um, because they were worried about my airways, you know, they were worried about all kinds of stuff, and at that point, again, I was just out. I don't I don't know what was going on, but they pumped me full of the pretnisone and the antibiotics, and uh that was pretty good. I believe it was for about five days. I still didn't feel quite right. Um, I went to a modest mouse concert. Oh my god, I love them. I mean that was great.
SPEAKER_03That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01I should not have done that. No, um, but it just got worse, and I had a third, or I don't know if that would be the third or the second reactivation. I guess it's it's the second reactivation, the third um system flare-up or whatever, counting the initial one. And that time I felt like I woke up in the night and all of the magenta beaded curtain looking welts and lashes and and marks from my toes to my neck were back.
SPEAKER_03Oh my god. And they were were they still burning?
SPEAKER_01Yes, I'd but except now I felt like somebody had like a pickaxe inside of every joint in my body. And it was like bones. My bones were were were done. I I felt like that fire and the electrical, you know, electrocution feeling was inside of my knees and my elbows and like every my hips. And it was like 7 a.m. I waited till the sun was coming up. I had crawled to my my dorm fridge and gotten out frozen peas and frozen carrots and had like put bags of frozen veggies on my joints and called my mom, who is six hours away. And she's like, Why are you calling me? So she's like, hang on your sweet maid's door. Uh somebody, because you have to like somebody right there has got to get you to the hospital, like a real hospital this time.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And so that's what happened. They drove me to the ER, um, pushed me right in, you know, like dragged me in there. And they were like, wait, what? A jellyfish? Like, yeah, okay. And they couldn't see, like, I felt like my knees and all my joints must be quadruple the size of what they normally would be. But they weren't. It didn't look any different. I just had these weird marks all over my body, and they wouldn't do anything for my pain or anything at all for me until they had a toxicology report come back. Which takes time. Yeah. So they had me thrashing in this bed um in agony. And the report came back, and they're like, Oh my gosh, she's clean, totally clean. There's nothing, nothing. Like, even the alcohol from the modest mouse concert, you know, a couple of nights prior or whatever was like there was nothing. And they were like, Okay, this is serious. So they gave me, I think it was like demerol or something, enough that I fell asleep. And the next thing I woke up, I I ended up being there for about a week. I was in, um, I don't know if I was in the ICU when I woke up finally, or if I they'd moved me again to my room, but there was a there was a lady there who had this huge binder, and uh, she was the specialist, and she was like, You made me learn more about jellyfish than I ever wanted to know. Wow.
SPEAKER_03Uh were you okay, so wait, so were how long were you asleep for? Were you like in a coma for a few days or something?
SPEAKER_01I don't know. I think it was probably just like drug inhibited. Like I was just blacked out from the pain, too. It was so, so overwhelming to my system. And the toxins they found out, it had like gotten into my bone marrow. So mess with my white blood cells, my red blood cells, like everything was a mess. And um, I was very uh, very, very ill. And she they had me on IV and everything. She was like, We don't even know what else to do for you. You know, your kidneys received the the toxins and then the prednisone and the antibiotics, and that was it. Like, like they started shutting down. So that was why it started going into my bone marrow, I guess. And like that's why my bones were hurting, I suppose.
SPEAKER_02Did they ever mention to you, um, I think I'm pronouncing this right, Irukanji syndrome?
SPEAKER_01Uh no, no, she she had no idea. She was like brand new. Like, she's like, I printed all this out, I've talked to the leading specialist. Like, she talked to people in other states that knew stuff about her. She's like, We don't get this up here. We're so sorry we didn't believe you. But she didn't have, unless I just don't remember if she mentioned that she could have. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02In my research for this episode, um, that's the condition that you get from getting stung, and it's like just inflammation that doesn't stop basically until you get treated. And it sounds like What you were going through, like your your side effects from what I read.
SPEAKER_01Yes. I mean, they they did definitely fix me up. I had residual issues for a long while where like I had I had been vegetarian and I they were like, we recommend you start eating red meat again. Um I don't know if that was for my blood cells or what, but she had mentioned some stats about how many people um like if you survive an attack like that, if you don't do what you're supposed to do, you don't get it all out, how many people will have a second reactivation, and then how many people out of a hundred or whatever will have a third reactivation, and then like how that goes and goes and goes. And she was like, You're in a bad tier, and you know, you're right, this isn't a fun category, you've made it to, you don't win a prize. So I'm glad you finally came in. Um but yeah, I uh I did not have uh the um drive or the motivation to go back into the ocean for quite a while after that. So did they the next time I went back in, I was shaking like a leaf. I I only made it about my knees, and that was that was that for a long time it took me.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, so did they did you ever figure out what kind of jellyfish? Was it a box jellyfish or was it irregular?
SPEAKER_01She had done all the research and from she had a bunch of different um species there. She didn't show me anything, she asked me to describe it, and uh I explained everything to her, I told her the whole story, and from her deductions and then talking to other experts, she figured it was a box jelly.
SPEAKER_02Whoa! Oh my god. See, I wasn't sure.
SPEAKER_01The hurricane brought it in. It wasn't like it was normally hanging out there or anything. They said the cold, cold waters had been brought in from the hurricane, so everything was kind of on its head. I mean, it could have just as easily been sharks because I guess that happens. Then two sharks come in with that cold water and the movement there from hurricanes, and yeah, the box dogs are typically way, way out.
SPEAKER_02That is literally the most venomous creature in the sea that you got stung by. Yeah, that's bananas.
SPEAKER_03Also, also from uh V's research, I like isn't giving the Benadryl like a bad thing because they didn't know what kind of jellyfish it was.
SPEAKER_02That's gonna keep your airways open, okay, is what I read, but it doesn't actually do anything to stop the venom.
SPEAKER_03Okay, yeah, yeah. Oh my god, you're so lucky, Dina.
SPEAKER_01I am. I must have big plans.
SPEAKER_02I mean, yeah, I mean, people you people die if they don't get treatment within 15 minutes sometimes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I credit my friends. My friends really hauled butt and they they made it so that I'm here today. I know that for a fact.
SPEAKER_03Nick needs a trophy, a box jellyfish trophy. Nate, Nate, Nate. Like he just didn't care because I I was thinking about it. Like, maybe I'm the worst friend, but I'd be like, Where's the tweezers? Where's the tweezer? Where's my makeup bag?
SPEAKER_02It's upstairs.
SPEAKER_03No, you got the wrong suitcase. It's in my other one. As you're as you're like laying there with tentacles, I'm like, yeah, like writhing, picking it off with a fork really gently. So I don't die.
SPEAKER_00And they were all over him, too.
SPEAKER_03Uh oh, that's so nice of Nate. Congrats, Nate. You're an awesome person, and um crank, congrats to you for having such responsive and awesome friends. Like, that could have been so much worse.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I'm very, very fortunate. I really am. I mean, everybody kind of got me where I needed to be, except that drive. I gotta tell you, that drive from North Carolina to me was a bear.
SPEAKER_03I can't believe I was I would have had so much anxiety, like I know, knowing how like sick I just was and trying to drive that far. Oh, you're so tough.
SPEAKER_01I was already feeling it. I was feeling really bad the last like two or three hours. I had the all the sunroof, the windows, everything open. I was like blasting nirvana. I was like, I'm gonna make it. It was horrible.
SPEAKER_03Oh I love how you're like, I might be not feeling well, but I'm going to modest mouse. Can't miss that.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I was like, I I couldn't, it was a birthday present.
SPEAKER_03Oh, they're great, especially their older albums, they're amazing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, back in 03, that's what it was. It was oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03That was like the time.
SPEAKER_01Yep, yes, it was a good time, it was not a good time. The modest mouse was a good time, but yeah.
SPEAKER_03Wow, thank you so much for sharing your story. That's incredible, and we're so happy. You're a survivor of a boxed jellyfish. Oh my god, I know.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you for having me on here to tell the story. It's not something you like talk to people about, really.
SPEAKER_02I know, and I think you you had mentioned it to me like one time, like 15 years ago, and I just excavated it from the back of my memory bank, and I was like, Yeah, we were probably all sitting around talking about trauma or something.
SPEAKER_01I was like, You guys want to hear about trauma?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we were probably smoking a bowl on like the MasterCard side of our gun, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that was like two years after it had happened. I was just like, Yeah, I'm gonna tell the story, I'm gonna tell it once.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because I I was a freshman in 04. So I was you know, yeah, it had just happened.
SPEAKER_03That is yeah, so great. I'm just so thankful that you came on to share it. And you know what? Um, you are actually informing a lot of people out there, like what to do. Because, like, again, no one really knows. Like, go to the vinegar, you know, like yes, get the meat tenderizer.
SPEAKER_01Don't do that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_02Don't and don't use like you can't wash it out with water or alcohol.
SPEAKER_03I I also and next time your friends come at you with knives, just be like, that's okay.
SPEAKER_02Scrape me down, baby.
SPEAKER_00What if it's the back side of the butter knife, the back side?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And flush your system. I should have drank way more water um once it had happened. I mean, the vinegar wrapped around you, and then the the Benadryl. I I still think that's so scary because they warn you about Benadryl with doses. I mean, it can make you um, I don't know, I feel like it can make you stop breathing too if you take too much.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01You have to be careful with that. But then also definitely do that meat tenderizer paste and let them scrape it out, bite a piece of wood, do what you gotta do. But that's that's that would have kept me out of the ICU right like two weeks later. I would have been much better, but it'll be annoying. Well, hopefully I won't ever have to do that again. But if anybody else gets in that situation, now they know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's great. Thank you for sharing that. And I'm glad you're facing the water again, you know. Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01Well, I got little ones now, so I gotta put on the brave face and you know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Are you doing like the wetsuit thing or are you just like, uh, whatever?
SPEAKER_01Uh well, it's been baby steps with little ones, so I haven't really gone way, way out and in again. Um, that'll come at some point, but I don't know. I'll probably do a wetsuit if I do it again, because yeah, it'll help. The t-shirt is really what saved my life, I think. If I didn't have that t-shirt on, or if it had been a guy and just a pair of chunks, right, then it would have been worse. But I I had a lot more skin covered.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_02That's what the doctor. Oh, yeah, yeah. Especially on your chest area.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, my heart. Yeah, I mean, getting around my neck, you should have seen it, and my rings were like stuck on my hands. Oh and it looked like I had been whipped with like a beaded curtain. You know, the like the teeny tiny little bead. I mean, it's so bizarre, like just weird and magenta, like this this dark, beautiful color, but terrible.
SPEAKER_03Oh gosh, that's crazy. I'm so glad you're here with us. Yes.
SPEAKER_02Yes, thank you. Me too. Well, thank you so much. This has been awesome. That was quite the uh survival story. Crazy, right? Dana later texted me that she had done a little bit more googling and it was indeed the Kyrenex Fleckery, also known as the Australian box jellyfish, that her specialist at the hospital in New York, where she was treated, had identified at the time. So poor Dana had been attacked by the literal deadliest creature in the world. If you have a survival story you would like to share, hit us up at killer earthpodcast at gmail.com or find us on Facebook at KillerEarth Podcast on Instagram and KillerEarth Pod on Twitter. Thanks for listening, and until next time, be careful out there. Don't bite pizza eat.