An Australian teenager has become the first person to die from a box jellyfish sting in 15 years.
The 17-year-old’s life support was turned off just over a week after he was stung while swimming near Bamaga, Cape York, on Australia’s northern tip, according to Queensland Police.
The unnamed teenager was intubated at the scene on 22 February, before being flown to Townsville Hospital. A report on his subsequent death is being prepared for the coroner, police say.
It is the first recorded fatality from the highly-venomous jellyfish since 2006.
The creature’s venom contains toxins that attack the heart, nervous system and skin. Each of its tentacles, which can grow up to 10 feet in length, contain about 5,000 stinging cells.
Their sting is so painful that swimmers have been known to go into shock and drown or die of heart failure before reaching the shore. 79 people have died from box jellyfish stings in Australia since records began.
Marine biologist Dr Lisa-ann Gershwhin said that the box jellyfish “locks the heart”, meaning that CPR and defibrillators won’t help to prevent death.
“You cannot unlock a clenched heart. You cannot unclench a clenched muscle,” she said.
Dr Gershwhin also noted that the last recorded box jellyfish fatality also happened near Bamaga, and called for greater education about the dangers of swimming without protective gear in the region.
Signs warning people not to enter the ocean during stinger season have reportedly been erected in the area.
