He was returning from Senegal “with his head full of memories”. But the end of his trip was more eventful than expected. On Saturday, a 46-year-old man was stung by a scorpion while on a plane from Dakar to Nantes, reports Ouest-France.
The scene takes place in the afternoon. This unfortunate passenger, named Xavier, first had headaches because of the turbulence. Then, by plunging his hand into his backpack to grab some medicine, he felt a “violent sting on a finger”, according to the words of his stepfather Loïc, interviewed by the daily. The culprit: a scorpion.
Seized by “unbearable” pain in his arm, he had his blood pressure taken. Subject to high blood pressure, Xavier imagines the worst. Luckily, a biologist is on board and brings him first aid, an anti-inflammatory and a painkiller. “In these kinds of circumstances, as much as the venom of the scorpion, it is often the cardiac shock which can be extremely serious for fragile or elderly people”, explains the scientist to Ouest-France.
More fear than harm
Upon his arrival, Xavier was immediately taken care of by the Nantes airport firefighters, then transferred to the city’s university hospital, in order to monitor him and carry out additional examinations.
The scorpion was handed over to the INF-Faune association, which specializes in the protection of wildlife. This specifies in Breton daily life that the bite of a specimen of this species is not dangerous for a person in the prime of life but can be fatal for a child or an elderly person.