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Who should Anne thank for this miracle?

Anne Curtis (File photo, NPPA Images)
Anne Curtis (File photo, NPPA Images)

Many reports have revealed how Anne Curtis miraculously survived an attack of one of the deadliest, most venomous creatures in the world, the box jellyfish.

However, little or no information has been given out on how incredible and amazing emergency or trauma procedures were done on the hapless heroine mermaid of “Dyesebel.” With the box jellyfish's lethal sting, which has been touted to mercilessly extinguish one's life by just a miniscule amount of venom by stopping one's heart in just a few minutes, it is indeed astounding to see how Anne survived.

Incredible lifesavers

But more than noting how Anne has become a perennial survivor, even on showbiz controversies, it is quite worth recognizing the incredible efforts of the people who indeed saved her life—from the time she screamed her lungs out in that remote shooting location in San Juan, Batangas, to the time she was declared out of danger at St. Luke's Medical Center in Bonifacio Global City.

Still, these people are nameless, and hopefully in the coming days, Anne herself should recognize their amazing efforts—superhero-like, if you ask anyone—in reversing the effects of the venomous sting.

For sure, these individuals have done measures widely disseminated in medical journals and publications, but the swift response and immediate knowledge of such trauma and emergency treatment is crucial in this life-and-death situation.

We learned from Dyesebel producers that Anne was rushed to a local hospital in San Juan then brought to another medical facility in Lipa City before being finally transferred to St. Luke's Global City. While St. Luke’s modern facilities and expert care brought the momentous end to understandably the worst episode so far in Anne's life, the immediate medical attention and emergency procedures she underwent from those still unnamed provincial hospitals was even more commendable, given how this trauma could not have been effectively handled by even the best facilities in the world.

Right decisions

Even those who rushed to Anne's rescue after the first sting should also be commended for the efficient handling of the situation and the right decisions they made in dealing with the emergency.

Articles show that almost no one stung with the envenomed box jellyfish ever arrives in the hospital alive, unless what Australian Prescriber notes “early basic resuscitation has been successful.”

The magazine revealed that first aid to box jellyfish victims like Anne “consists of immediate removal of any tentacles and generous application of vinegar.” Vinegar, the magazine states, “deactivates the remaining nematocysts and therefore prevents envenoming.” I'm sure someone from the production crew or, even an observer or witness to the incident, knew this and made this immediate treatment.

‘Stinging message’

By the time she reached local Batangas hospitals, the staff had already known and imparted proper medical care, such as fluid resuscitation, and maybe intravenous antivenom to avoid the much-feared swift cardiovascular collapse, along with respiratory and neuromuscular paralysis.

But more than how these still nameless individuals have indeed done their heroic part in saving Anne’s life from this worst, most lethal jellyfish attack, which has claimed the lives of up to 40 people yearly in the Philippines alone and hundreds worldwide, is a “stinging” message about life, faith and people.

I surely hope she heeds it.