TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Florida man walked away with no broken bones or serious injuries after being attacked by a swarm of bees and falling nearly 30 feet off a bucket truck earlier this week.
Jon Christian shared his remarkable story with reporters at NBC affiliate WESH, telling them that one of his doctors said he may be “the luckiest person in the world.”
Christian was completing a post-hurricane tree trimming job in Cirtus County Wednesday when he suddenly hit a beehive. He was still several feet higher than the roof next to him as the bees started swarming.
“They just came straight up at me, and I couldn’t get them off me,” Christian told WESH.
Amid the chaos, Christian said he accidentally hit a switch, trapping himself in the bucket truck as the bees kept stinging him.
“Somebody said jump, so I took off out the side of the machine,” he said. “I fell 30 feet, and I hit the roof and rolled off the roof to the ground and them things just kept coming at me.”
The rest of Christian’s crew from All Florida Land Services pulled him away from the swarm and rushed him to the hospital.
Despite being stung more than 100 times and suffering a steep fall, Christian, who has had a bee sting allergy since he was a kid, was practically uninjured.
“I had no broken bones, no internal bleeding and whatever they treated me with at the hospital, it’s a miracle because the swelling went away,” he said.
Grant Thomas from BeeMan Stan Bee Removal in Polk County told reporters he believes it wasn’t European honeybees that nearly took Christian’s life, but rather the killer kind.
“Their comb throughout the whole thing was extremely dark in color,” Thomas said. “There was no honey on it whatsoever. And you know, typically, whenever you get attacked by bees, or I should say, get stung by bees, you’ve got three or four stings. You don’t get hit hundreds of times.”
Christian said he was grateful to be alive and thankful that his co-workers quickly removed him from the life-threatening situation.
“The doctor said that I either had superhuman strength or I’m the luckiest person in the world,” he said.
He’s already ordered bee suits in case he encounters another angry swarm on the job.