A Kentucky man died from bee stings. Here's when bee stings can become life-threatening.
Key Takeaways
A man in Kentucky died from respiratory failure after being stung by a swarm of bees in his yard.
While most bee stings are mild, they can result in anaphylaxis, delayed immune response, heart attacks, pulmonary hemorrhages, neurological problems, and acute kidney failure.
Last week, 59-year-old Michael Wayne Alford, of Kentucky, was stung by a “swarm of bees”—resulting in his death at a local emergency room. Alford was stung when he disturbed a nest of bees near the bag of potting soil.[]
Following the incident, the man had a hard time breathing. The Harlan County Coroner’s Office posted a Facebook announcement saying, “CPR was started by family, continued by Lifeguard Ambulance and the Emergency Department until those attempts failed.”
While the coroner’s office Facebook post did not include the patient’s name, subsequent news reports have confirmed his name. The post also did not specify how many times Alford was stung, but some news reports say it was between 15 and 20 times by both “yellow jackets and bees.”[][]
The cause of death was respiratory failure due to bee stings, but the investigation is ongoing, Harlan County Coroner’s Office Deputy Coroner John Jones told NBC News, who also reports that Alford had underlying health conditions that may have played a role in his reaction to the bee stings.[]
The post’s comments section showed multiple people asking for more clarification about the type of insect involved in the incident—and this is because bee-like insects, like wasps and yellow jackets, inflict different types of envenomation with a range of severities.[]
When bee stings become dangerous
Most bee stings lead to a mild reaction and are annoying at worst. However, a sting can be fatal for patients with an allergy—or for people stung multiple times. It’s worth talking to your patients about any bee allergies they might have, especially if they live on a property with active nests.[]
“If [a patient] is one of the unlucky folks who responds badly, it's a medical emergency,” says Natalie Bonthius, MD, who has a background in, and teaches, survival medicine. “The toxins in bee venom can trigger everything from serum sickness (a delayed immune response) to heart attacks, pulmonary hemorrhages, neurological problems, and acute kidney failure.”
Serum sickness can lead to arthritis, fever, and a rash—and generally shows up four to 10 days after a sting. The severity of the sickness correlates to the dose and allergy to the venom.[][]
Certain patients will experience anaphylaxis—whether from a single bee or a sw
“Bee stings deliver a larger amount of venom than wasp stings, but their stings are generally less severe than wasp stings. More so, wasps are able to sting multiple times whereas bees can only sting once,” Dr. Johnson-Arbor says.
arm, says Ryan Marino, MD, a medical toxicologist and assistant professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. For this reason, he says, patients who “have ever had an allergic reaction to bee stings should carry epinephrine (an EpiPen), and anyone who experiences anything more than just local site discomfort should seek emergency medical attention.”
Kelly Johnson-Arbor, MD, FACEP, FUHM, FACMT, a medical toxicologist based in Washington, DC, explains how these stings affect the human body: First, she says, bee and wasp venoms both include histamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine—all of which can lead to allergic reactions and anaphylaxis, due to vasoconstriction and blood vessel spasms. Multi-organ failure can happen in severe cases.
According to University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources,
“Humans can be killed if stung enough times in a single incident. With honey bees, the toxic dose (LD50) of the venom is estimated to be 8.6 stings per pound of body weight,” which means a healthy adult might need to be stung about 1000 times to be at risk of death. Children are at greater risk of death or complications due to their size.[]
“Most deaths caused by multiple stings have occurred in men in their 70s or 80s who were known to have poor cardiopulmonary functioning,” they also note. In fact, of the 1,109 hornet, wasp, or bee sting deaths between 2000 and 2017, 80% occurred in males, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).[]
Is there a sweet side to bee venom?
Interestingly, bee venom may also potentially be helpful to human health, Dr. Johnson-Arbor says. She says bee venom offers antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory qualities.
A 2019 article in Molecules says that the therapeutic use of honeybee products—known as apitherapy or bee venom therapy (BVT)—may have “advantageous potential in treating inflammation and central nervous system diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.” There is also some indication that bees could be used against certain kinds of cancers and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).” []