© AFP/File/Lawrence BartlettA sign outside a hotel warns swimmers of box jellyfish, in Darwin. A 10-year-old Australian girl who survived being stung by the world's most venomous creature, may have rewritten medical history, an expert said Tuesday
Schoolgirl Rachael Shardlow lost consciousness after being badly stung by the jellyfish while swimming in a river in eastern Queensland state with her brother in December, but lived to tell the tale.
"When I first saw the pictures of the injuries I just went, 'you know to be honest, this kid should not be alive'," said Jamie Seymour, professor of zoology and tropical ecology at James Cook University.
"I mean they are horrific. Usually when you see people who have been stung by box jellyfish with that number of the tentacle contacts on their body, it's usually in a morgue," he told public broadcaster, the ABC.
Often deadly, the box jellyfish has long, trailing tentacles and is able to squeeze through even the smallest of nets as it is only the size of a fingernail.
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