Gunung Angsi: Of bee stings, leeches and precautionary measures!

A couple of friends made a plan yesterday to hike up Gunung Angsi which is located in Negeri Sembilan. It was quite an experience for me; an astonishing one.

We started our hiking not so early, it was around 9 a.m. The trail was wet because it was raining heavily a day before. After 20-25 minutes (fast steps) of hiking, most of my friends got stung by the bees including me too! It was pretty hard to notice the presence of bees in front of the trail earlier. Bees’ bites caused a little pain but since they were not very harmful that moment, we decided to continue our journey to the summit. After another 20 minutes of hiking, one of my friends who got stung by the bee complained that he felt numbness on his face and his whole body started to get really itchy. I was panicked and our team was a bit worried about his condition hence we decided to stop immediately and gave him plenty of water. We then asked him to get some rest and we hoped he would feel better. Unfortunately, he could not calm himself; his heartbeat increased rapidly that he felt painful and difficult to breathe. In addition, there was no phone signal (reception) to call the registration office for help. We were in such a critical situation; there was no choice – one of our team members started to run towards the base to seek for help. Meanwhile, my friends and I stayed to look after the other friend who was in pain. Sadly he was getting worst because his face & hand was swollen and he was getting much more difficult to breathe and kept vomiting. Don’t ask us why we didn’t carry him down; the condition of his body did not allow us to plus we did not have much experience as well (I guess I need to start enrolling in paramedic classes).

After a while, he started to move slowly and bearing with the pain. Along the way, we bumped into a few groups of people and most of them said that they were also got stung by the bees. While we were walking back returning to the base, we passed by the “bees attacking point” with an alternative small path close to a waterfall. At this point, we met a big group of hikers and the leader offered some medicine to my friend. Thanks for his help but it had worsened my poor friend’s situation. My friend who ran to the base earlier, managed to get help from the personnel of Civil Defence Department (Jabatan Pertahan Awam) and we met them on our way to the base. They started to assist my friend until we reached the base (in 10 minutes we got to the base). They didn’t provide any medicine because they mentioned that our friend was suffering from allergic reaction and could not simply gave him any medication. Right after, we rushed him to the nearest clinic. Again…again we were so unlucky that the doctor in the clinic said, “He is in trauma, you need to immediately rush him to the hospital.” We straight away brought him to Seremban General Hospital (GH) and the doctors quickly admitted him to the emergency room and treated him. He was stable 2 hours later and slowly recovering.

We got in touch on Facebook Group with the hiking experts and those who often hike on some queries - What is the best approach to handle this kind of situation (bee stings)? How can we prevent from getting sucked by leeches? The area has a lot of them especially after it rained. We are very grateful that they were helpful in giving several advices and tips. Thank you guys! :)

To sum it up here are the things that you need to consider bringing along when you are coming over to Gunung Angsi or on any other adventurous activities:

1. First aid kit with Prednisone steroid, antihistamine, Prednisolone, Cetirizin, or Polaramine

• Prednisone: It is used to treat certain inflammatory diseases (such as moderate allergic reactions)
• Antihistamines: Work well to relieve symptoms of different types of allergies (More info)
• Prednisolon: Used to treat many different conditions such as allergic disorders (More info)
• Cetirizine: An antihistamine used in the treatment of hay fever and allergies
• Polaramine (dexchlorpheniramine): Used to treat sneezing; runny nose; itching, watery eyes; hives; rashes; itching; and other symptoms of allergies and the common cold (More info)

2. To ease bee sting symptoms are toothpaste and ice
3. Bite & sting extractor kit --> More info
4. For leeches, wear leech socks --> More info

Safety has to come first in mind, nature lovers! :)