Irukandji Syndrome - Media Demonstrations

Media Demonstrations

The severity of the pain from an Irukandji jellyfish sting is apparent in the 2005 Discovery Channel documentary Killer Jellyfish about Carukia barnesi, when two Australian researchers (Jamie Seymour and Teresa Carrette) are stung. Even under the "maximum dose of morphine", Teresa remarked she "wished she could rip her skin off", and is later seen writhing uncontrollably from the pain while lying on her hospital bed. In one scene, Teresa's feet are shown contorting and digging into the bed, and she is wiggling her toes and kicking her feet around. When the camera moves back, Teresa is seen rubbing her face, her body is contorting in agony, and her legs are rapidly sliding and kicking around on the bed. Jamie, at his worst, is also seen writhing in pain, curled up in a ball and barely able to speak. Jamie said he wished that he was stung by Chironex fleckeri, instead, since "the pain goes away in 20 minutes or you die".

Another recent program aired on the Discovery Channel, Stings, Fangs and Spines, featured a 20-minute spot on Irukandji syndrome. In the segment, a young Australian woman was stung and developed a severe case. In a testament to the severity of pain involved, a re-enactment (featuring the actual victim portraying herself) shows her screaming and violently thrashing around on the hospital bed in an almost convulsive state, for the bulk of the segment. She later commented that this unbearable pain lasted for hours, and added, "I didn't think it was possible for anyone to endure that level of pain without turning into a vegetable."

On the television program Super Animal, a woman compared her pain from childbirth to her experience with Irukandji syndrome: "It's like when you're in labor, having a baby, and you've reached the peak of a contraction—that absolute peak—and you feel like you just can't do it anymore. That's the minimum that pain is at, and it just builds from there."