A man in his 40s died early yesterday after he was attacked by a swarm of hornets when guiding a group of high-school and university students on a hike on a section of the Jinshuiying Old Trail in Taitung County the previous day.
Taitung Mackay Memorial Hospital said the 41-year-old, identified as Hung Wei-yen (洪偉彥), who sustained more than 50 stings on his back, was pronounced dead at about 2am after efforts to resuscitate him failed.
On Thursday afternoon, Hung and the group of 20 students were 2.5km away from the trail exit near the indigenous village of Qaljapang in Dawu Township (大武) when they encountered a hornet nest, the Taitung County Fire Department said.
Photo from Legislator Chung Chia-pin’s Facebook page
All of the students made it past the nest, but two sustained minor injuries due to stings and were taken to a hospital for treatment.
The students said that after reaching a safe distance they immediately contacted the fire department for help because they were unable to get back to Hung, who was lying on the ground and was surrounded by hornets.
Hung had instructed the students to run past the nest quickly while he stayed behind to try to shoo the insects away, the students said.
The department’s rescue team said they reached Hung at about 7pm and injected him with three doses of a cardiac stimulant as he was unable to move.
Despite having a low blood oxygen level, Hung was still conscious when he was taken to the Dawu Health Center, rescuers said.
However, his condition quickly deteriorated, and he was transferred to Mackay hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The group began hiking the trail from the Pingtung side and were supposed to end their hike at about 6pm in Taitung, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) said.
Hung was the deputy chief of Chung’s service office in Pingtung who volunteered to take the students on the trip.
Thursday’s hike was part of an event organized by Chung’s charitable education foundation, which organizes field trips for local students to reward them for having good grades.
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