‘Worst pain’: Teen stung by deadly irukandji in waters off Hervey Bay

A teenager has told how she was left in terrible pain after she was stung by an irukandji jellyfish in the waters off Hervey Bay.

Kaelyn Coker in the aftermath of the Irukandji sting.

A Hervey Bay mum is warning others after her 18-year-old daughter was stung by an irukandji jellyfish in the waters off Torquay this week.

Natasha Coker posted on social media and spoke to the Chronicle in the aftermath of the incident, which happened on Wednesday.

She said her daughter, Kaelyn, had started suffering symptoms after jumping off the Torquay Pier.

Her daughter texted her, saying her chest was “really tight” and she thought something had stung her at the beach.

However she hadn’t felt a sting and her skin had only a small welt that at first she thought was caused by her swimwear pinching her.

When her daughter came home, Mrs Coker took her to Hervey Bay Hospital, where doctors heard her symptoms and told her it was likely she had been stung by an irukandji.

Mrs Coker said her daughter had been in “absolute agony” after the sting, with the pain shifting from her back and legs and also presenting as pins and needles.

A tiny but fully grown deadly irukandji jellyfish lies next to match sticks for size comparison.

“I’ve never seen her in so much pain,” she said.

A second woman had come in to be treated for similar symptoms while her daughter was in the hospital, Mrs Coker said.

Hervey Bay Life Saving Club had been made aware of the incident, she said.

Mrs Coker said she knew not much could be done to avoid the stings, but she wanted to warn others, especially parents of small children.

Kaelyn said the incident had been “so random”.

On the way home from the beach, she had started experiencing the symptoms, including tightness in the chest and a dull ache throughout her body.

“It was the worst pain I’ve ever experienced,” she said.

At the hospital she had been treated with painkillers before being hooked up to a magnesium drip, but it had been several hours before the pain had started to ease.

Kaelyn Coker in the aftermath of the Irukandji sting.

Irukandji stings have been cause for concern on the Fraser Coast for a number of years.

Last year about the same time of year, five children suffered suspected irukandji stings in the space of little more than a week on K’gari.

At the time, irukandji expert Professor Jamie Seymour, who first recorded the presence of the deadly jellyfish off K’gari more than 15 years ago, said he hoped it wouldn’t take a tragedy for the state government to investigate the spread of the animals down the Queensland coast.

Irukandji are known for their small size and highly venomous sting, which often leads to hospitalisation and can be fatal.

Professor Seymour said more people were hospitalised in Australia because of jellyfish than both sharks or crocodiles, but the animals attracted little attention or funding for research.

He fears it will take a tragedy to change things.

“I hope that nobody ever gets in a situation where they are in a life-threatening position from an irukandji sting, but I have to say that it is going to happen at some stage down there,” he said.

Originally published as ‘Worst pain’: Teen stung by deadly irukandji in waters off Hervey Bay