But now, as he waited for the drugs to work, a wave of anxiety crashed over him and a voice inside his head screamed: He called the lone military flight nurse on duty, who, upon seeing him, said he needed to get to an emergency room immediately.Ī government van transported him to the nearest hospital where doctors administered steroids, including prednisone, a powerful medication used only for the most severe allergic reactions.Įarlier, Estright had told himself not to panic. That night, the pain migrated to his spine and radiated around his rib cage. “She had no idea what to do with this.”īack at his room on the base, Estright popped some Benadryl, but his condition worsened.
“She was used to open wounds, fractures, and treatments for chemical and biological warfare,” he says. The medic, at a loss, bathed the wound in cold water and then looked up at Estright and shrugged. Suddenly Estright began to experience what felt like an allergic reaction-watering eyes, severe nasal congestion, itchiness all over-followed by a rolling tide of excruciating pain that rippled across his limbs. A quick examination on the beach revealed a mark the size of a sand dollar, as red and raw as a smoldering cattle brand, pulsating on his left thigh. He managed to swim to shore, where a medic was already waiting. “I felt like I’d been stabbed in the thigh with a hot screwdriver,” he recalls. The blow, swift and sharp, came while he was treading water, waiting for his turn with the ‘chute. “I was concerned a shark would confuse me with a double cheeseburger.” “There are too many ways to die in the ocean,” Estright says today. His dread came from the murky depths around him. Over the previous 20 years he’d flown hundreds of combat missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Africa, swooping past surface-to-air missiles to help extract Navy SEALs and Recon Marines. See our recommended snorkeling and scuba diving tours in each destination along the East Coast.Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play So go ahead and plan that Great Barrier Reef holiday in Australia. You can be assured you have just as much chance of coming across a box jelly fish in many other countries and not just Australia.īox jellyfish are also found in popular holiday locations such as Bali, Thailand, The Phillipines and quite a number of other countries with warm coastal waters such as South-Eastern Asia, Africa, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Indo-Pacific. While the common minsconception is that the box jellyfish are more commonly associated with being indigenous to Australia and the Great Barrier Reef this is not actually factually correct.Īustralia has been at the forefront of studying these marine animals over decades, and research scientists from all over the world arrive on the Great Barrier Reef to meet with the local experts to study and share their findings, which are then published with two main words, "Australia and the "Great Barrier Reef",thus the misconception that box jellyfish are only found in Australia. Its 60 tentacles – equipped with millions of nematocysts, or stinging cells – extend from the body, and have the potential to inflict fatal stings to humans. Possibly one of the most dangerous marine animals of Australia’s waters, the box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri) derives its name from the box or bell shape of its body.
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