Travel Incidents
Meridith
Melbourne, Australia
Member: Sep 2013
Gender: Female
Age: 37 years
GOOGLE TRANSLATION Mornington Peninsula
"Scorpion Sting"
Our Irish friend got some work planting shrubs on a property about an hour south of Melbourne. He was bitten by something on his finger, it drew blood and was extremely painful. He was in agony with the pain, but said he only saw a movement and didn't actually see what had bitten him. The locals seemed unaware of scorpions and the only conclusion sought was that he had woken a sleeping snake (as they are in the area too, hibernating at this time of the year). He was treated for snake bite and rushed to the local hospital. It was doctor number 4 that finally correctly diagnosed him.
Luckily in Australia a scorpion's sting is not known to kill. It can cause pain, strong ache, blistering and a pins and needles sensation for days afterwards. It is normally treated with ice packs and pain medication. However, always best to get checked at a hospital - our friend also required an MRI to make sure the stinger was not still lodged in his finger.
Scorpions can be found all over Australia from desserts to rain forests. They do tend to be nocturnal and non-aggressive unless provoked.
TIP : You are unlikely to see a scorpion in Australia, as they are nocturnal and tend to sleep in burrows underground during the day. Always wear gardening gloves when gardening or labouring in Australia. This will be better protect you from scorpions, spiders or snake bites.
Viti Levu, Fiji
"Tummy Bugs in Fiji"
We love Fiji, but a few days in on our 10 day vacation, both our 5 month old and 2 year old had severe diarrhoea, despite our whole family being careful with what we ate and drank at the resort. I myself vomited and had 24 hours of it towards the end of our stay, but our main concern was with our baby who was not getting any better and rapidly loosing weight. We found at the local doctors and on the way home in the plane that our case was by no means isolated.
Unfortunately, the medication we got given for the baby was the wrong one and we didn't receive the correct tablets to help her until we returned home. We were very panicky with trying to keep her hydrated in Fiji. We were surprised that in Fiji they don't have 'Hydralyte', have never heard of it and have no substitute. On top of receiving the correct tablets, Hydralyte certainly would have helped all of us on that trip. Two days after arriving home i got rushed to hospital with appendicitis - would be hard to know if that was related to any of our stomach problems.
#Travel #Children
