While we all jump for joy when the summer season comes around, the warm weather does come with its consequences - bugs.
Although not all insects are pests, some can be incredibly dangerous. While we commonly associate bees with honey, it's important to remember they also have painful stingers.
One man who'll never forget that fact is 81-year-old Thomas Mizell who was stung by more than 1,000 bees while he was mowing a field.
"I was running a dozer in the woods, helping my cousin clear a right-of-way for a fence. All of a sudden, I saw a black cloud of bees surrounding me," he said. "I jumped off the dozer, which happened to be in neutral. I left it running and took off through the woods, trying to make my way to a little lake I had dug on the property."
He added: "I said, "˜Lord, help me.' When I fell down trying to get out of the bees, He said, "˜Walk by faith,' so I did. My heart was pounding as I went toward that pond. Still fighting the bees, I jumped into the pond but I could still hear the bees under the water."
The father-of-two from Tarkington, Texas was covered in bees from head to toe, including his eyes, ears, and nose. Some of the insects had even made their way into Mizell's ear canal, causing his ear drum to burst.
"Came right through here, stumblin' and a fallin' and fightin' them things and I jumped in right aside that pole right there," Mizell said. "When I got out of the pond, here come my wife and my son right there, 30 minutes early to pick me up."
That day, Mizell's wife Mary said she felt something was intuitively wrong. Instead of finishing up her lunch date with their son Joey, they decided to jump in the car to search for Mizell.
When Mizell finally left the pond, he immediately saw his wife's vehicle and ran straight towards them before collapsing. Mary, who had been married to Mizell for 57 years, didn't recognize her husband when he came her way.
"As we turned onto the road, we saw a figure. I couldn't tell it was him right away," she said, adding that they immediately rushed him to the Cleveland Emergency Hospital.
When Mizell arrived to the emergency room, his blood pressure had skyrocketed, and he received life-saving medication while the nurses tediously pulled out more than 1,000 stingers from his body.
"God had Cleveland Emergency Hospital ready for us. I just know it," he said. "They gave me a lot of Benadryl and I don't remember a lot after that. My heart seemed to settle down right away."
Mizell was released from the hospital only one day later, which coincidentally, was his birthday. He said that people need to be more aware of the dangers of bees, because not everyone will be as lucky as him.
"God spared my life and I'm thankful," he said.
Mizell isn't the only one who's survived an animal attack. Take a look at these stories of people who've cheated death:
- Man Fights Off Shark With Trick He Learned From YouTube
- 9-Foot Gator Attacks Girl While Swimming, Learns Its Lesson the Hard Way
- Woman Recovering From Bite After Finding 50 Recluse Spiders In Her Bedroom
[H/T: Beaumont Enterprise, People, Houston Chronicle]
