Well known Sonoma racer died from swallowing bee/bug

[buddybikes]

Sounds great to have EPI pens in their bag of tricks, but $$$ yet another life saving product kept away due to corporate greed. This isn't new technology...

[froze]

That's a sad bit of news.

I swallowed a bee once, and it stung my throat, while it hurt a bit, that's all it did. I tried to gargle some water to flush the little bugger out, but it didn't work, so I guzzled some water to flush it down. Actually, for a bug, it wasn't bad tasting, sort of sour from what I can remember. Of course, I didn't chew it up, yuk!

[litcrazy]

Originally Posted by Black Dog

Toss in some chewable aspirin 81mg I case of a potential heart attack for yourself or someone else.

I hadn’t thought of that. I will add those.

[Black Dog]

Originally Posted by rwsaunders

Yep…I had been stung countless times by ground wasps as a kid when I was a caddie and as I grew older, when I was stung the reactions seemed to intensify…swelling, itching. One Summer while trimming a tree in our back yard, a sting in the head by a paper wasp sent me into shock and I was out cold by the time paramedics arrived and revived me. Fortunately I was home and my wife called 911 when I wasn’t responding to Benadryl and my pulse was dropping.

EpiPen user after that and I’ve had to use it a few times over the years following a sting…especially from wasps…no reaction from honey bees for some reason. Being an active cyclist exposes one to more bee encounters than you think. Just using myself an as example, 5 stings while riding over the past 20 years…two were memorable and one ended with another ambulance ride.
Some people think of the EpiPen as a “cure”, but it’s supposed to be the temporary fix until a medical professional takes over. The poor gent at the race seems to have run out of luck, as you couldn’t script that story.

EpiPens buy you time to get an antihistamine on board. Anyone who carries an EpiPen should have Benadryl with the pen. Hope that an ambulance will get to you before the epinephrine wears off is not a good idea. 10-15 minutes is the window that the epinephrine gives.