CSO rescues women from bee terror

TALI FEINBERG

These are the chilling words Lauren Glezer used to describe one of the most frightening days of her life. It started as a simple dog walk in Cape Town’s Green Point Urban Park on 16 February, and ended with Glezer, her elderly mother, and their dog being attacked by a swarm of bees. The Community Security Organisation (CSO) played an integral role in rescuing them. The women miraculously survived the incident, but their dog didn’t.

Glezer describes what happened. “My mom Sylvia, my beautiful dog Charlie, and I often go to this park as it has a restricted enclosure where dogs can run freely. It’s my happy place.

“We usually sit on the other side of the park, but it was full, so we headed to a bench that we don’t usually sit on, which we didn’t realise was near a beehive. Suddenly I felt a bee sting me, and then we were surrounded by thousands of bees.” The next thing, they were completely covered by bees, and were being stung all over. Charlie was also attacked, and even swallowed some of the bees, which he later vomited.

Glezer says that much of the ordeal remains a blur, but she remembers taking off her jeans as they were covered in bees, and she felt it was the best way to get them off her body. Park security tried to help them, giving her a jacket to cover her legs, and helping her to get the stings out of her hair. Most people couldn’t get close enough to help the women, but a nearby friend, Rodney Beck, called the CSO, which rushed to the scene within minutes.

Beck says he was on his way to meet Glezer when he received her frantic call. Leaving his wife and dogs in his car, he ran into the park, where he saw both women covered in bees.

“I saw Lauren screaming and her mother lying on the grass. There were bees everywhere – they had followed them even though they were now quite far away from where it started. This was five or 10 minutes after the bees first attacked. Sylvia looked like someone had taken 50 or 60 needles and put them in her face and arms. They were saying, “It’s burning, it’s burning!” It was absolute chaos.”

Beck said he acted on instinct, leading them even further away from the area until no bees followed. He then called the CSO. “At that stage, there were no more bees, but the damage was done. Within minutes, the CSO had put up drips and monitors. It was like a movie.”

The women were taken far enough away from the bees to a room behind the park’s restaurant, and the CSO began treating them. “If the CSO hadn’t come, I‘m not sure what would have happened. It was there for us,” says Glezer.

“Lauren and Sylvia were clearly in pain, and there was nothing they could do to help themselves,” adds Beck. Once the women were stabilised, he got out of the way of the medics, and helped contact family and friends.

Glezer remembers vomiting from the poison in her system. Throughout the ordeal, her mother, who is almost 83 years old, remained calm. “She had been stung from head to toe,” says her daughter. Meanwhile, their dog was rushed to the vet. The family are heartbroken that he didn’t survive.

Natasha Salkinder was with her husband Darren, a CSO medic, when the incident call came through. When they arrived at the scene, “he immediately started attending to the patients. I watched as Darren picked out the stings, and eventually started using his debit card to pick them off, as it’s more effective. It was later decided to take both patients to hospital in the same ambulance.” The two women were in intensive care for three nights. Glezer was discharged from ICU on Wednesday, and her mother remains in hospital.

Says CSO Cape Town’s Dani Janks, “The CSO’s role in situations like this is for well-trained and dedicated medical responders to assess the situation and the condition of the patient in need of medical attention, begin treatment, stabilise or resuscitate the patient if needed, and activate an ambulance for every call. If critical, the patient is handed over to a private or government ambulance service to be transported to hospital.

“Our advice to anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation is to try to remain calm and remove yourself from the area, seek immediate medical attention, and don’t further aggravate the bees. If you are allergic, always carry the necessary medication. When outdoors, always try to remain in groups, and ensure that you have adequate cell phone battery and signal.”

•     CSO Cape Town can be reached on 086 18 911 18, and CSO Johannesburg on 086 18 000 18.