- Reaction score
- 64
- Points
- 530
From Army Times.
The sting of irony
Capt. learns scorpion lesson he won’t soon forget
The irony stung worse than the scorpion. An officer who studies dangerous wildlife recently got attacked by one of the scorpions he spent months warning others to avoid.
Capt. Stephen Garvin, an entomologist with the 981st Medical Detachment supporting Third Army/U.S. Army Central in Kuwait, made a routine latrine trip Oct. 5 when he felt something crawling on his right ankle.
Thinking it was a fly, he smacked the offending insect with his left foot and ground it against his ankle.
That’s when he felt the sting.
The fat-tailed scorpion is one of the three deadliest in the world, capable of killing a person in seven hours.
Garvin suffered extreme nausea, dizziness and a ;10-day migraine.
Although half of scorpion stings result in little or no venom spread to the victim, soldiers who are stung by a scorpion have a 50 percent chance of sharing Garvin’s experience, said Maj. Dennis Kilian, a force health prevention officer.
Of the six stings reported at Camp Buehring during the past year, Garvin was the only one to suffer the effects of the venom.
Since then, he’s received nicknames such as “Captain Scorpion” and “The Scorpion King.”
It’s “like being something between a celebrity and a circus freak,” Garvin said.
He preserved the crushed scorpion that stung him and said he plans to use it teaching troops the dangers they face in the Middle East.
The sting of irony
Capt. learns scorpion lesson he won’t soon forget
The irony stung worse than the scorpion. An officer who studies dangerous wildlife recently got attacked by one of the scorpions he spent months warning others to avoid.
Capt. Stephen Garvin, an entomologist with the 981st Medical Detachment supporting Third Army/U.S. Army Central in Kuwait, made a routine latrine trip Oct. 5 when he felt something crawling on his right ankle.
Thinking it was a fly, he smacked the offending insect with his left foot and ground it against his ankle.
That’s when he felt the sting.
The fat-tailed scorpion is one of the three deadliest in the world, capable of killing a person in seven hours.
Garvin suffered extreme nausea, dizziness and a ;10-day migraine.
Although half of scorpion stings result in little or no venom spread to the victim, soldiers who are stung by a scorpion have a 50 percent chance of sharing Garvin’s experience, said Maj. Dennis Kilian, a force health prevention officer.
Of the six stings reported at Camp Buehring during the past year, Garvin was the only one to suffer the effects of the venom.
Since then, he’s received nicknames such as “Captain Scorpion” and “The Scorpion King.”
It’s “like being something between a celebrity and a circus freak,” Garvin said.
He preserved the crushed scorpion that stung him and said he plans to use it teaching troops the dangers they face in the Middle East.
The moral of this story? Look before you slap? ;D
