Man suffers hallucinations after being stung by scorpion on plane

March 5, 2015  17:38

Forget about snakes on a plane — a scorpion gave a passenger a real dose of crippling venom during a frightful flight in South America.

A Canadian man en route from Bogotá, Colombia, to Mexico City on Friday suffered hallucinations and agonizing pain and thought he’d die after being stung by the venomous arachnid.

Adam Young of St. John’s, Newfoundland, recounted his ordeal on Facebook, CBC News reported.

“We had a full row of chairs each, perfect for napping,” Young wrote on Facebook, referring to his friend Brendan Dawson. “I was just about asleep when I felt an insect crawl in under my shirt.”

Young tried to flick it off, but it had already stung him three times, he said.

“I jumped up out of my chair in a huge commotion and it fell out of my shirt on to the chair,” he said.

Dawson thought his pal was just kidding, but then saw the critter skitter across the floor and under a seat. They called the flight attendants and then killed the terrifying stowaway.

The plane they were travelling on instantly turned back towards Bogotá.

"The flight back was the longest 20 minutes of my life," wrote Young.

"Pain, nausea, chest pains, hallucinating and thinking that I was gonna die made it hell."

Young said there was an ambulance waiting for him on the tarmac when the plane landed. Once he got off the plane, he was taken to a medical examination room where they injected him in the buttocks with some anti-venom.

He said the cabin crew did a thorough search on the plane for other scorpions, finally clearing the aircraft two hours later.

"At this point the pain had subsided slightly and I wasn't letting that stop me from making it to Mexico," said Young.

Young said there was a man on the plane who was familiar with scorpions, and told him that he was stung by a highly venomous species.

"[It] could potentially kill a human," he wrote.

"I am still feeling the affects of this, but I am alive… lucky to be alive actually."

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