Woman stung by jellyfish

A 20-year-old woman swimming Saturday afternoon in a creek near Dewees Inlet was stung so badly by one or more jellyfish that she had welts from head to toe requiring emergency treatment, officials said.

Friends and family rushed the woman by boat at about 4 p.m. Saturday to Isle of Palms Marina. Town emergency medical workers there treated her stings with vinegar and baking soda before sending her to East Cooper Regional Medical Center.

"She had stings all over her. She was just in a lot of pain. She was shaking pretty bad," said Luke Powell, a dock hand at the marina. Powell said the welts on the woman's body were about the size of a penny. He said he had heard of another serious jellyfish sting that happened two days ago at Capers Inlet.

A male friend of the woman who was with her at the emergency room said she was doing OK. He declined to give his name or the woman's name. He said the woman was from out-of-state. He said the woman's mother, a doctor, was in a boat with them when the sting happened.

"All of a sudden she just started screaming," the friend said. He said the sting happened in an area across from the inlet where he swims all the time. He said no one saw whether the stings were inflicted by one jellyfish or by a school of them. The woman was released Saturday evening, a hospital official said.

Emergency officials transporting the woman to the hospital could be heard on a police scanner discussing the possibility that the woman was stung by a Portuguese man-of-war. National Geographic's Web site says the Portuguese man-of-war sting is excruciatingly painful but rarely deadly. It says the organism's long, thin tendrils extend an average of about 30 feet under water. The Portuguese man-of-war is not actually a jelly fish, but a siphonophore, an animal made up of a colony of organisms working together. They are found in warm waters throughout the world, according to the Web site.

Cynthia Wilson, manager at Isle of Palms County Park, said jellyfish stings are common in summer but encounters with the Portuguese man-of-war are rare. "Those are much more serious," she said. In August, it's not unusual for about 25 stings to be reported in a day at the park, she said. "It's normally minor," she said.

Hilton Head Island experienced a jellyfish invasion that resulted in stings to more than 3,000 beachgoers in a week in early August. About 6,200 of the 6,300 jellyfish stings reported this year on the island happened in July, officials said.

On average, the island reports 10,000 stings a year, officials said.

Reach Prentiss Findlay at pfindlay@postandcourier.com or at 937-5711.