Friday, May 29
th, 2009: 10am *Erin's
perspective*
My family went down the hill to my grandma's house. To cut down an old, old avocado tree. My mom (Patti), dad (Russ), little brother (Josh), uncle (Richard), great uncle (Bill), cousin (Tim), grandma (Barbara), and I were at her house. I didn't work on the tree because I was studying for a math final, but everyone else was outside, busily working on the tree. My mom and grandma came inside to get their stuff so they could return a chain saw that wasn't working. Shortly after they left, my brother came inside to cool off and get a drink. Now my dad and Uncle Richard were working on the tree itself, my Uncle was on a man lift cutting branches. While my
GUB (or Great Uncle Bill) and cousin Tim were working in the back with a chipper to, obviously, chip the wood.
My brother and I went to the window in the kitchen to watch my dad and uncle work on the tree. When we noticed little bugs start to fly around his head. He looks at them and starts to lower the man lift, swatting the "bugs" away... It turns out those "bugs" were bees. Now, something you need to know is my uncle is
deathly allergic to bees. Now continuing on, he starts to swat at them making them angry. So more and more start to come and sting him. The man lift stops and he calls out to my dad to help him. My dad runs to the man lift and desperately tries to get the lift down. Unfortunately, no one has told him how to work the lift so while this is happening, my dad and uncle are being attacked by very angry bees.
Now, I don't even know what I was thinking... I ran around the house madly, looking for a blanket to cover up my uncle when he got down. I found one and ran outside, only to be told to run and get my Uncle Bill. So I run to the other side of the house to get Uncle Bill, and my cousin Tim is with him. Of course the chipper is running, so they can't hear me. I run up all out of breath screaming, "Uncle Bill! Uncle Bill! Their being attacked by bees!" They don't understand me, later on my cousin told me he thought something was on fire, but they noticed a line of bees following me, so it clued them in on what was really happening. I finally notice the bees going and starting to attack me so I start to run. Again, a little side info, my grandma has a circular driveway, so I just ran up and down the backside of the driveway. As I am running, I'm screaming and crying, "Oh God, please make them stop!" It was difficult, also hearing the screams of my dad and uncle from the other side of the house. They eventually lost interest in me when I took the sweater off that I was wearing. I was stung twice on the back of my skull.
It is very hard to explain the fear. I was so scared and
panicked, I cried with no tears... More like dry sobs. By then, my sensitive
bronchial disease was catching up with me (its like asthma). I sat in the garage and cried and panted and coughed. When I went outside I saw my dad and uncle hosing themselves down, my Uncle Bill helping, and my cousin on the phone calling 911. I went up to my dad and helped him get the bees out of his hair and off his body. We took them to the garage and made them sit/lay down. Then my brother, cousin, and I went to the driveway to watch for the emergency crews.
When we spotted the firetrucks coming down the street, we waved them down and watched them from the inside of their trucks, putting on bee netting under their helmets. They eventually came out and looked around the house and over my uncle and dad. They then separated into two groups. Group one grabbed heart
monitors and their
emergency bags, and
immediately starting looking after my dad and uncle. Group two went to the truck and started to hose down the tree, house, and vehicle near the hive, trying to calm down the bees. They then too a soap and washed down my uncle's truck, the man lift, and the driveway (I guess it was to calm the bees sense's).
I mostly watched Group one, they worked on my dad and uncle until the paramedics got there. I had to call my brother's teacher and tell her that my brother won't be able to come in, and then I called my sister (Becky) who was at home. I was fine at first, but then it was like a rain storm flooded over me... I got off the phone with my sister as my mom and grandma arrived from the trip. My brother had called them and said my uncle was the one stung, so they didn't even know my dad was just as bad. So my mom is shocked to see my dad being looked over by the firemen. The paramedics then bring to gurneys for my dad an uncle. My dad slowly gets up and has they
whisk him away, he asks for pain medication. My uncle though, can't even stand, so the firemen have to help him on the gurney. My mom then comes over to me and hugs me, then noticing my breathing irregularities. She had one of the firemen look at me and unfortunately they didn't have an inhaler in the truck and I had forgotten mine at home.
So when we left to the hospital, I saw 3 firetrucks, 2 paramedics, and two police cars. The police cars were blocking the streets, they actually closed the whole street. My grandma's house is a four lane, very busy street and is a freeway entrance, so them closing it was something big.
In the end, my dad and uncle both had over 200+ bee stings each. They are both fine, except for some hive looking bumps on their body. I have two on the back of my head, which I am getting looked at tomorrow because they are HUGE and made my neck muscles to my shoulder muscles sore for a while, that and the glands in my neck are swollen still... So that isn't any fun, but everyone is fine now. Thank God for his protection. My dad said something that really bothered me, but it is so true. He said "Instead of having dinner with you now, you could be planning my funeral. " But praise God we aren't, you can't say that God doesn't work
miracles!
