Tourist dives face first into a deadly jellyfish

In a case of extraordinary bad luck, a man sailing off the coast of north-eastern Australia dived into the ocean and face first into a tiny, but deadly, Irukandji jellyfish with a sting said to be as painful as childbirth.

The 29-year-old, who has not been named, was wearing a full-length protective stinger suit (a lightweight version of the wetsuit), which covers everything but the face, feet and hands. But the peanut-sized jellyfish still managed to find his exposed face when he dived off a yacht while sailing near South Molle Island in Queensland’s popular group of Whitsunday Islands on Thursday.

He was immediately stung on the face by the venomous jellyfish, which is almost impossible to see in the ocean but which is common throughout the tropical waters in north-eastern Australia from October to May each year. Tourists are advised to wear stinger suits or simply not to swim in the water, or risk being stung by the marine creatures.



The man was pulled back on to the tour boat suffering excruciating pain and taken to the island where, shivering and in shock, he was given first aid. He then had to wait 40 minutes until a rescue helicopter was able to transfer him to a hospital at Mackay on the mainland, where he remained in intensive care earlier today.

Phillip Dowler, general manager of the CQ rescue squad in Queensland, said the man would have welts across his face for weeks, but was likely to eventually recover from the painful sting. “It was very unfortunate that it (the jellyfish) managed to get him on the only part of his body that was exposed,” Mr Dowler said.

“A sting from an Irukandji jellyfish has been described as being as painful as childbirth, people who are stung usually screaming in pain. And his would have been exacerbated by the fact that it got him on his face, close to his brain and his nervous system. It would have been extraordinarily painful.”