Rachael Shardlow, 10 year old, from Australia lost consciousness after being badly stung by the jellyfish while swimming in a river with her brother in December.but she survived and this is a miracle.

"When I first saw the pictures of the injuries I just went, 'You know, to be honest, this kid should not be alive,’” zoology professor Jamie Seymour, from James Cook University, told ABC News in Australia. "I mean, they are horrific. Usually when you see people who have been stung by box jellyfish with that number of the tentacle contacts on their body, it's usually in a morgue."

Often deadly, the box jellyfish has long, trailing tentacles and is able to squeeze through even the smallest of nets as it is only the size of a fingernail.

The venom is so overpoweringly painful that victims often go into shock and drown or die of heart failure before reaching the shore. There is no effective anti-venom for its sting, which attacks the heart, nervous system and skin, inducing shooting muscle pain, vomiting and a rapid rise in blood pressure.

Rachael was pulled from the Calliope River, near the town of Gladstone, by her 13-year-old brother with the jellyfish's tentacles wrapped around her legs.

Before passing out, she told him she could not see or breathe.

After the rescue, she spent six weeks recovering in hospital before returning home.

"I don't know of anybody in the entire literature where we've studied this where someone has had such an extensive sting that has survived,” Seymour said. "From our point of view, it's really useful information that you very seldom, if ever, get your hands on."

The girl's father Geoff Shardlow told ABC News that his daughter had suffered scarring to her legs and some short-term memory loss.

About Box Jellyfish:

The infamous box jellyfish developed its frighteningly powerful venom to instantly stun or kill prey, like fish and shrimp, so their struggle to escape wouldn’t damage its delicate tentacles.

Their venom is considered to be among the most deadly in the world, containing toxins that attack the heart, nervous system, and skin cells. It is so overpoweringly painful, human victims have been known to go into shock and drown or die of heart failure before even reaching shore. Survivors can experience considerable pain for weeks and often have significant scarring where the tentacles made contact.

Box jellies, also called sea wasps and marine stingers, live primarily in coastal waters off Northern Australia and throughout the Indo-Pacific. They are pale blue and transparent in color and get their name from the cube-like shape of their bell. Up to 15 tentacles grow from each corner of the bell and can reach 10 feet (3 meters) in length. Each tentacle has about 5,000 stinging cells, which are triggered not by touch but by the presence of a chemical on the outer layer of its prey.

Box jellies are highly advanced among jellyfish. They have developed the ability to move rather than just drift, jetting at up to four knots through the water. They also have eyes grouped in clusters of six on the four sides of their bell. Each cluster includes a pair of eyes with a sophisticated lens, retina, iris and cornea, although without a central nervous system, scientists aren’t sure how they process what they see.



Tags: box jellyfish, jellyfish, würfelqualle