RIPLEY, Ohio — A man in southwest Ohio is in the hospital after he was swarmed by bees and stung 20,000 times.
Phyliss Edwards said her 20-year-old grandson, Austin Bellamy, was doing some trimming work last week when he unknowingly cut into a bee’s nest.
"When he started cutting them, that's when the bees came out and he tried to anchor himself down and he couldn't,” she said. “He was hollering, ‘Help! Help me! Help!’ And nobody would help him.”
His mother, Shawna Carter, wasn’t there but remember the phone call.
"When I got the call, I did pass out. It was just too much for me to take,” she said. "Everybody tells me it looked like he had a black blanket on his head down to his neck, down to his arms."
But Phyllis and Austin’s uncle Dustin Edwards wanted the entire incident unfold, both trying to save him.
"I was going to try and climb the ladder to get to Austin. I seen how high he was, but I couldn't get to him because I was surrounded in bees,” Phyllis said.
A medical helicopter arrived and took Bellamy to University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
Carter said Bellamy’s was in a medically induced coma and that he also ingested 30 bees.
"So he had bees inside of him and they suctioned bees out of him until Sunday morning,” she said.
She said her son is swollen with red bumps turning into bruises as well as scabs and sores all over his body.
Bellamy is still on a ventilator, but the family said doctors told them he will make a full recovery.
"I just want to tell him that I love him and I miss him and he's my boy,” Dustin said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 62 people die each year from hornet, wasp and bee stings.
Most of those deaths are likely among people who are allegoric to insect stings.