Published: Tuesday, January 9, 2007
By Lauren Ober
Free Press Staff Writer
Sure, Samuel L. Jackson might have had to deal with snakes on a plane, but he never had to deal with scorpions.
David Sullivan has.
The Stowe man was stung twice on a Burlington-bound flight from Chicago by a crafty scorpion that had taken refuge in Sullivan's trousers. Sullivan's troubles most likely began in Houston, where the plane originated and the stowaway scorpion is thought to have begun its airborne odyssey.
After a Jan. 3 flight from San Francisco, where Sullivan and his wife, Helena, had been visiting their sons, the couple boarded the United Airlines flight in Chicago and fell asleep, thinking they would arrive in Burlington a few hours later without problems.
About 15 minutes before landing in Burlington, the couple was awakened by the captain's voice on the intercom. As they prepared for landing, Sullivan, 46, noticed that his right leg felt like it was asleep. He rubbed it and hit his knee to wake it up.
The couple disembarked and waited for their luggage in the baggage claim area. Again, Sullivan started feeling an odd sensation in his leg, only this time the tingling was on his left shin.
"It was getting more intense. It felt like a small electric shock," Sullivan said.
He bent over to pull up his pant leg to investigate his shin and saw an inch-and-a-half-long scorpion dart down his leg and onto the floor. Sullivan, who said he is generally pretty mellow, didn't flip out upon seeing the scorpion and realizing he had been stung, not once, but twice. A fellow passenger stepped on the scorpion, and Sullivan took it with him to Fletcher Allen Health Care.
The staff at Fletcher Allen was flabbergasted, Sullivan said. He said he became an emergency room curiosity because most of the staff had never treated anyone with a scorpion sting before.
All they could do for Sullivan was monitor his vital signs. Anti-venin serum for scorpion stings exists, but there is none in Vermont and federal regulations prohibit it from being transported between states.
A United Airlines representative called Sullivan in the hospital to check on his condition. Sullivan said the airline offered no compensation for the sting, nor did it offer to cover the insurance deductible for the hospital treatment or the taxi ride home to Stowe from the hospital. Sullivan said some kind of redress could come later.
Sullivan said the electric shock feeling stayed in his legs for 36 hours and he endured flu symptoms for a few days after. He still feels some blockage in his ear, but he's back to work and said he's on the mend. He's not likely to forget his first scorpion experience any time soon.
"I could feel the venom work its way through my body," Sullivan said.
Posted by: frank
SCORPIONS ON A PLANE!!!
heheh.
Posted by: Cinderella
omg im never getting on a plane again!!!!!!!!
Posted by: USMCMP5811
Yup, getting stung is no fun......I was whacked by one 5 times when I was stationed down in AL durring a field exercise...........No fun at all.
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