Koh Phangan: Israeli boy's death was third from box jellyfish in last seven years - swimming outside net

[webfact]

File photo

 

Thai media Manager reported on the death on Saturday of a nine year old Israeli boy at Had Rin beach on Koh Phangan in the south of Thailand.

 

Li Yam Levi was swimming with several others outside a protective net area when he was stung on his right arm and leg by a box jellyfish.

 

His father heard screams and attended to the boy with vinegar before an ambulance was called but he died on the way to Phangan International Hospital.

 

Had Rin beach has signage in three languages warning of the danger that the media said is particularly dangerous during August to November.

 

In 2014 a five year old French boy died at Had Rin and in August 2015 a 31 year old Thai woman who was stung on the arm died outside Sunrise Bungalow in Ban Tai.

 

Saturday's incident happened outside Seaview Sunrise. 

 

Elsewhere in the Thai media Natural Resources and Environment minister Varawut Silpa-arch expressed his condolences to the family and ordered the marine department to up its efforts to protect tourists. 

 

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[smedly]

very sad

 

RIP

[Gottfrid]

Tragic and sad! Something that should not need to happen. One must ask what the parents were doing? Even a nine year old needs supervision while playing in water. Especially outside net and in a foreign country.

[KannikaP]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

and ordered the marine department to up its efforts to protect tourists

Put the signs in 20 different languages? (including Hebrew)

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, KannikaP said:

Put the signs in 20 different languages? (including Hebrew)

Or just one picture of a box jelly fish and a big red cross?

[robblok]

4 hours ago, Gottfrid said:

Tragic and sad! Something that should not need to happen. One must ask what the parents were doing? Even a nine year old needs supervision while playing in water. Especially outside net and in a foreign country.

Nobody could have helped, stings are often fatal. So what do you expect the parents to do you don't spot them easily at all so its not as if they could have warned

[KannikaP]

12 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Or just one picture of a box jelly fish and a big red cross?

Would the jellyfish understand that?  

[gearbox]

4 hours ago, KannikaP said:

Put the signs in 20 different languages? (including Hebrew)

These signs are put in paces where are not very visible. The hotels should do more - warning the customers when checking in, but for many reasons they won't do it. Creating too much noise about jellyfishes scares the tourists, to some extent Australia doesn't make too much noise about the jellyfishes in the North too.

I was there around 2 months ago, and the net was already in place. I didn't put too much thinking about it, and swam more than 1km outside the net, probably around 100m further outside it. I guess I was lucky...and there were a lot of people including children in the shallow waters outside the net. No other beach in Phangan had a net, it is either only Haad Rin where the encounter is possible, or they just don't have resources to put it in more places.

They better do something to address the problem, otherwise there would be ongoing issues - nobody wants to fly thousands of km to swim in a net.

[KannikaP]

7 minutes ago, gearbox said:

I was there around 2 months ago, and the net was already in place. I didn't put too much thinking about it, and swam more than 1km outside the net, probably around 100m further outside it. I guess I was lucky

I wouldn't say you were LUCKY, simply inconsiderate to whoever would have had to rescue/treat/funeralise you by ignoring the net. What did you think it was there for?

And were you 1 km or 100 m outside the net, I cannot understand that either.

[gearbox]

2 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

I wouldn't say you were LUCKY, simply inconsiderate to whoever would have had to rescue/treat/funeralise you by ignoring the net. What did you think it was there for?

And were you 1 km or 100 m outside the net, I cannot understand that either.

I was 100m outside the net swimming 1km parallel to the beach.

 

I was actually not aware this was a net, it looked from outside as a rope with plastic floats, one can see these on many beaches where they mark areas for jet skis, etc. I was swimming back and tried to go below the rope, and my hands went straight into the net.

 

I swim in Samui all the time quite far from the sand and there are no nets, so I wouldn't be expecting a jellyfish problem around the islands so serious to warrant a net. Nets are common in Northern Australia, but the beaches around the gulf islands don't look like typical jellyfish and croc beaches.

 

[KannikaP]

2 minutes ago, gearbox said:

I was 100m outside the net swimming 1km parallel to the beach.

 

I was actually not aware this was a net, it looked from outside as a rope with plastic floats, one can see these on many beaches where they mark areas for jet skis, etc. I was swimming back and tried to go below the rope, and my hands went straight into the net.

 

I swim in Samui all the time quite far from the sand and there are no nets, so I wouldn't be expecting a jellyfish problem around the islands so serious to warrant a net. Nets are common in Northern Australia, but the beaches around the gulf islands don't look like typical jellyfish and croc beaches.

 

No answer to this then.

[Gottfrid]

5 hours ago, robblok said:

Nobody could have helped, stings are often fatal. So what do you expect the parents to do you don't spot them easily at all so its not as if they could have warned

Really? I might just had been as easy to tell the child to play inside the net. You do not think that is the basic responsibility of a descent parent?

 

[robblok]

8 minutes ago, Gottfrid said:

Really? I might just had been as easy to tell the child to play inside the net. You do not think that is the basic responsibility of a descent parent?

 

No I don't my parents let me live free and his dad was there soon enough to get out of the water. So he was close by he did not die of drowning but of venom. Those attacks are so rare it could have been a bee sting or something else. There will always be things we can't control. 

 

I mean if this was a big thing but 3 deaths in 7 years is nothing. I mean if you look at it it from this point its such a rare occurrence that you don't even take it in consideration. 

[MrJ2U]

That always scares me when swimming in Hua Hin.

 

Rainy season brings the jellyfish.

 

"There are jellyfish in the sea all year round but they tend not to come too close to shore until the rainy season, probably due to the direction of the sea currents and tides."

 

"The  months of June to October are the worst affected months so extra care should be taken if you want to go swimming in the sea especially after rainfall."

 

http://www.hua-hin-thailand.com/hua-hin-jellyfish/

[Gottfrid]

8 hours ago, robblok said:

I mean if this was a big thing but 3 deaths in 7 years is nothing. I mean if you look at it it from this point its such a rare occurrence that you don't even take it in consideration. 

Do you really mean that?

[kwilco]

11 hours ago, robblok said:

No I don't my parents let me live free and his dad was there soon enough to get out of the water. So he was close by he did not die of drowning but of venom. Those attacks are so rare it could have been a bee sting or something else. There will always be things we can't control. 

 

I mean if this was a big thing but 3 deaths in 7 years is nothing. I mean if you look at it it from this point its such a rare occurrence that you don't even take it in consideration. 

Between 1999 and 2015, there were seven fatalities on Thai beaches. One death occurred on Koh Lanta in Krabi province, and six deaths happened on Koh Samui and Koh Phangan.

this doesn't include the non fatsl incidents or those unreported.

 

I wonder about the net and how compete it was and whether it was from a hotel only covering the beach used by guests.

 

the last time I saw any jellyfish signs there were truly dreadful.... multiple images and a very confusing message.

As said above what is needed is a simple red circle with a jelly as used elsewhere in the world.

 

There needs to be more u understanding of the Box Jelly fish life cycle inThailand. Every time so.e dies there is an outcry, but this eventually dies down and little changes.

 

PS why did this one hotel have a net out? Is it permanent  or had there been sightings?

 

[robblok]

2 hours ago, Gottfrid said:

Do you really mean that?

Yes I do, you can't cover everything as a parent. Risks that are so small should not always taken into account. What do you think is more dangerous the trip through Thai traffic or being in the water. Like i said my parents let me live up with a lot of freedom. They took into account the high risk and medium risk things. But things that happen so rare like this no. If they did i might never have gotten out of the house.

[l4ml4m]

What solution has been found abroad ? I guess that there is nothing to do but use vinegar ?

 

And why big pharma do not make a rushed vaccine in 2 months ? not large enough customers base ?!

 

 

[robblok]

34 minutes ago, l4ml4m said:

What solution has been found abroad ? I guess that there is nothing to do but use vinegar ?

 

And why big pharma do not make a rushed vaccine in 2 months ? not large enough customers base ?!

 

 

Can you vaccinate against venom ?

[kwilco]

4 hours ago, l4ml4m said:

What solution has been found abroad ? I guess that there is nothing to do but use vinegar ?

 

And why big pharma do not make a rushed vaccine in 2 months ? not large enough customers base ?!

 

 

Firstly there is a box jelly anti venom.

Secondly comparing antivenoms and vaccines just ignores the medical differences.

 

So why dont Thailand have the anti venom?.Maybe because it is relatively new 

As there are many species if box jelly I dint even know if it will work.

The anti venom itself also has undesirable side effects.

Australia has many more snaje bites than Thailand and more dangerous snakes, yet the death rate is relatively much lower. WHY? Because emergency medical care in Australia is so much more effective.

So before engaging in conspiracy theories about big pharmaceutical, it's better to look closer to home at Thailand's emergency services.... and how effective their precautionary warning systems actually are.

[kwilco]

4 hours ago, l4ml4m said:

What solution has been found abroad ? I guess that there is nothing to do but use vinegar ?

 

And why big pharma do not make a rushed vaccine in 2 months ? not large enough customers base ?!

 

 

Firstly there is a box jelly anti venom.

Secondly comparing antivenoms and vaccines just ignores the medical differences.

 

So why dont Thailand have the anti venom?.Maybe because it is relatively new 

As there are many species if box jelly I dint even know if it will work.

The anti venom itself also has undesirable side effects.

Australia has many more snaje bites than Thailand and more dangerous snakes, yet the death rate is relatively much lower. WHY? Because emergency medical care in Australia is so much more effective.

So before engaging in conspiracy theories about big pharmaceutical, it's better to look closer to home at Thailand's emergency services.... and how effective their precautionary warning systems actually are.

[kwilco]

The article seems to place a lot of emphasis attempting to give the impression that box jelly incidents are very rare... but this ynderplaying is a bit misleading.

Incidents arent confined just to Samui and KPN or just the gulf they also occur in the Andaman.

Furthermore it ignores non fatal I accidents.

It also ignores the fact that many minor I accidents are either not recorded or misdiagnosed.. 

Recorded inThailand weren't even started until 1997....

 

    "Between 1999 and 2015, there were seven fatalities on Thai beaches. One death occurred on Koh Lanta in Krabi province, and six deaths happened on Koh Samui and Koh Phangan

The victims were all tourists, except one – a local Thai woman ." Wiki.

This number has since increased.

[brewsterbudgen]

Are there similar jellyfish cases from beaches on the other side of the Gulf - Pattaya, Ban Chang, Rayong and on to Koh Samet and Koh Chang?

[gearbox]

8 hours ago, kwilco said:

Between 1999 and 2015, there were seven fatalities on Thai beaches. One death occurred on Koh Lanta in Krabi province, and six deaths happened on Koh Samui and Koh Phangan.

this doesn't include the non fatsl incidents or those unreported.

 

I wonder about the net and how compete it was and whether it was from a hotel only covering the beach used by guests.

 

the last time I saw any jellyfish signs there were truly dreadful.... multiple images and a very confusing message.

As said above what is needed is a simple red circle with a jelly as used elsewhere in the world.

 

There needs to be more u understanding of the Box Jelly fish life cycle inThailand. Every time so.e dies there is an outcry, but this eventually dies down and little changes.

 

PS why did this one hotel have a net out? Is it permanent  or had there been sightings?

 

The net was pretty big, I doubt a hotel (there are no expensive hotels in front of it) would incur these expenses in the current covid situation.

 

Why it was at that beach...this probably explains it:

 

https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13104-016-1931-8

 

"The highest number of cases occurred on East Rin beach of Pha-ngan island (27.3 %), Chawang beach of Samui island (27.3 %), and Bo Phut of Samui island (18.2 %). Two cases occurred on Lamai beach of Samui island and Khuat beach of Pha-ngan island, subsequently."

 

Chaweng also has sting cases, but I don't remember seeing a net there...

 

In normal pre-covid times there were tens of thousands of tourists in Samui August/September, so it doesn't seem the risk is that high, although the jellyfish population seems to be rising.

 

 

[gearbox]

2 hours ago, kwilco said:

Firstly there is a box jelly anti venom.

Secondly comparing antivenoms and vaccines just ignores the medical differences.

 

So why dont Thailand have the anti venom?.Maybe because it is relatively new 

As there are many species if box jelly I dint even know if it will work.

The anti venom itself also has undesirable side effects.

Australia has many more snaje bites than Thailand and more dangerous snakes, yet the death rate is relatively much lower. WHY? Because emergency medical care in Australia is so much more effective.

So before engaging in conspiracy theories about big pharmaceutical, it's better to look closer to home at Thailand's emergency services.... and how effective their precautionary warning systems actually are.

The antivenom can be successful if you have lifeguards with appropriate training to do CPR and apply antivenom they have with them. Depending on tentacle coverage, the antivenom needs to be administered within a couple of minutes of the sting.

There are no lifeguards at Haad Rin and Chaweng, how long it would take an ambulance with antivenom to come through the narrow and busy roads?

 

The victims in Australia are relatively low, as the people in the North are well aware and prepared. At the most popular beaches there are lifeguards. Nevertheless stings do happen. I was chatting with a guy at Dingo Beach, north of the Whitsundays. His little kid was stung by Irukanji in ankle deep water outside the season (late May), almost died.

[kwilco]

As Gearbox's posts show there is very little up to date material readily available on Google and there are contradictions and they are open to interpretation.

 

It is often suggested that the population of box jellies is on the increase 

 

This has been said quite a lot - but there is as yet no definitive information on this.

It has to be remembered that this has always been box jelly habitat but the numbers of tourist have increased exponentially - and with this the number of people in the sea there are more likely to be incidents.  This is probably more likely to be the reality of the situation.

 

As yet there is also no definitive season either -  furthermore the numbers are far too low to be significant enough to express percentages im any meaningful way.

It has been stated that box jelliy populations are typified by highs and lows on a random or cyclic basis....but the causes are yet to be understood.

 

Most of the articles on Box Jellies in Thailand contain inaccuracies or misleading comments which shows how little is known so far…...It boils down to the need for more research to identify the species and its natural history. Once this is known then the authorities can take more effective measures.

 

[kwilco]

29 minutes ago, gearbox said:

The victims in Australia are relatively low, as the people in the North are well aware and prepared.

This is something  that Thai needs to achieve

[kwilco]

10 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Are there similar jellyfish cases from beaches on the other side of the Gulf - Pattaya, Ban Chang, Rayong and on to Koh Samet and Koh Chang?

Yes...there are box jellies on both the Andaman side and the Gulf. It seems they prefer shallow shelving beaches of which there are more around Gulf resorts. In fact in the Andaman there are also several cases just over the border in MalaysiaThey have been reported or sighted in all the destinations you mention.

[kwilco]

10 hours ago, gearbox said:

The antivenom can be successful if you have lifeguards with appropriate training to do CPR and apply antivenom they have with them. Depending on tentacle coverage, the antivenom needs to be administered within a couple of minutes of the sting.

There are no lifeguards at Haad Rin and Chaweng, how long it would take an ambulance with antivenom to come through the narrow and busy roads?

 

The victims in Australia are relatively low, as the people in the North are well aware and prepared. At the most popular beaches there are lifeguards. Nevertheless stings do happen. I was chatting with a guy at Dingo Beach, north of the Whitsundays. His little kid was stung by Irukanji in ankle deep water outside the season (late May), almost died.

The reason for the urgency of administering the anti venom is not down to the medication, it is due to the fact that a victim can die within minutes of being stung. If the victim can survive longer, the antivenom can still be applied