01x12 - Get Back in the Kayak!

[bunniefuu]

[suspenseful music]

- JAMES: It's not really about the hunting.
- [growls]

[g*n c*ck]
[g*nsh*t]

It's just being out in the woods, and
seeing the different species of animals.

Just being out there alone.
The serenity.

Just discovering new things
and looking at just how nature acts.

[screams]

NARRATOR: Palm Beach County, Florida.

Home to the J.W. Corbett
Wildlife Management area.

Nestled between West Palm Beach
and Lake Okeechobee,

lies over 60,000 acres
of protected forests and wetlands.

Known as the "Old Florida Tangle",

this preserve
hosts a diverse array of wildlife.

From deer and bobcats
to water fowl and reptiles.

A rich bounty that attracts
the most passionate outdoor enthusiasts.

People like James and Terisa Boyce, who've
been hunting here for over 15 years.

JAMES: I've been hunting
since I was five years old.

I started out when I was
a young fella in Maine.

And my father took me in the woods,
and with my brothers, learned how to hunt.

And from thereon, I moved to Florida.
And I carried on hunting to this day.

The first time I actually went
officially "hunting",

James took me, and you know,
we walked through the woods together,

and I got to see like a deer in the wild.

Flash forward 16 years later,
and we're still doing the same thing.

I'm still following him around the woods.
[laughs]

I've learned so much about the animals
and what they can provide.

And the different nutritional values.

So it's been like
the field-to-table process.

We have never ate anything
from the store in ten years for meat.

We only eat off the land.

NARRATOR:
It's the beginning of the season.

And James and Terisa are hoping
to get their first deer.

That morning, November 9th, 2019,
was like any other morning.

It's first day of hunting.

And was just supposed to be
a normal, regular hunting day.

TERISA: So, we arrive at our location.

And then we lock the truck up,
grab our gear.

So it's cloudy, it's kind of
gross looking. A little drizzle.

JAMES: So, we went by trail three.

Trail three goes all the way from the top
of Corbett down to the backside.

And around. The first day of hunting is
when everybody gets in the woods to hunt.

And there's so many people,
in swamp buggies and sh**ting.

And so we knew that buggies hunt
from the main road to trail three.

So, what do they do?
They scare all the deer that way.

NARRATOR: James and Terisa continue
down trail three, hoping to intercept

the deer being scared off
by other hunters in the area.

JAMES: By that time, it was probably
around 8:30, quarter to nine.

- We get about three miles.
- We're navigating through the water,

and the rain is starting
to rain a little harder.

My feet are getting soaked.
I'm getting soaked.

And at this point, it was chilly.
And I'm miserable.

I'm just, I'm done.
I'm like, "Let's just go back."

JAMES: And I said you know, you're right.

It is started to rain a little harder.
Let's go.

TERISA: So, now we're in
"headed back to the car" mode.

So, you're not really
paying as much attention.

And I was just trying to keep up with him.

JAMES: She was trailing behind,
ten to 15 feet.

And I remember her saying what she wanted
to eat for breakfast.

And I was like, "Yeah, that sounds good."
I step around a Palmetto bush,

and all of a sudden, it felt like
I stepped right into an electrical outlet.

Like a jolt.
And all of a sudden, my leg's numb.

And I'm like, "How did electrical
get out here, three miles in the woods?"

And then I heard him scream.

[screams]

TERISA:
I'm thinking he got bit by a snake.

That was my first thought.
"Oh, my gosh, it's a snake."

JAMES: And I look down, and I got a gator
with my whole leg in his mouth.

NARRATOR: The American Alligator
evolved over a 150 million years.

Around since the time of the dinosaurs.

Found in fresh water rivers,
swamps, and marshes

across the southeastern United States,

this large semi-aquatic
reptile can grow up to 15 feet long

and weigh over 1800 pounds,

making them one of the fiercest
predators in the region.

Dr. Marisa Tellez, Executive Director
of the Crocodile Research Coalition,

has been studying these animals for years.

And she knows exactly
what James is up against.

MARISA:
The American Alligator have evolved

a bite force to clamp down and to hold on.

A ten foot alligator,
you're looking at a bite force of about

1800 pounds per square inch.

That would be like a semi truck falling
on your big toe.

All I remember saying,
"You gotta be [bleep] kidding me."

And of course, now he's crunching down

and I am telling you, the pain...
if you go one to ten, it had to be a 15.

Enough to make your eyes
roll back in your head.

And I'm screaming,
like I was being m*rder*d.

[screams]

TERISA: I've never heard him scream
that way. I know something is wrong.

This is not "I've hit my thumb
with a hammer" scream. This is bad.

And I just freeze. I'm processing.
"What just happened? What's wrong?"

JAMES: It happened so quick,
and he was not letting go.

I'm in a fight now.

[gasps]

- What's the matter?
- JAMES: She didn't know I'm in a fight.

I didn't have time to tell her that.

"I'm getting bit by a gator.
Hold on honey, be right there."

I didn't, no.
I yelled at Tes to stay away.

JAMES:
Stay back. Stay back.

The reason why she was
not an experienced hunter.

And she's not that good of a shot.

But the number one reason,
I'm afraid there's a nest there.

And I did not want her getting bit.

NARRATOR: But James' fear of an alligator
nest is unfounded this late in the fall.

MARISA: During this time of the year,
it's past alligator nesting season.

It's not that momma
alligator is protecting her babies.

She's now pretty much left the nest, and
those baby alligators are by themselves.

It's very possible that the Palmetto bush

was able to hide possibly the prey that
this alligator may have been protecting.

[yells]

JAMES: When he didn't want
let go, I knew he wanted that leg.

And he's crushing it,
and I hear it popping and popping.

He severed all the nerves in my leg.
That's where the electricity shock was.

It was from all the nerves he severed.

So he hit me hard enough
to rip the nerves the first bite.

And now he's getting into the bone.
He just slowly crush. It was like a vice.

[crunches]

Then I'm on his tongue. And he's like,
"Ah..."

You know, the growl that is there,
his eyes are there looking right up at me.

And then he's like
just scooting back with me, like...

"Oh, no, no, no, no."
And I have this g*n on my shoulder.

But now I'm fighting with him and grabbing
the g*n. And I started hitting him.

Hitting him to enough
where that g*n started breaking apart.

I hit him in the nose.
I hit him on top of the head.

I hit him in the eye a few times.

At the time, I didn't think
it was doing anything

because he was just going back and forth,
it didn't make a difference.

And of course, I've got blood now running
down in his mouth.

When your whole leg is inside an animal,
you are becoming part of the food chain.

Here I am eating the food that
God's created and taken off this earth.

Now, I'm becoming his prey.
He was looking at me as a food source.

To be eaten alive.

OLIVIA: I was aware that they were
in the United States.

I know they've been moving up
through Brazil over the years.

Part of some crazy experiment.

Nature can be treacherous.

I never in my life thought that
I would live to tell about it.

NARRATOR: Orlando, Florida.
It's mild winters and sub tropical climate

make it not just
a popular vacation destination.

But also a great spot
for professionals to gather

for conferences and corporate retreats.

Which is why Dr. Olivia Affuso and
Dr. Daheia Barr-Anderson have come here

to attend an annual sports
medicine conference.

OLIVIA: I'm Olivia Affuso.

And I'm an Associate
Professor of Epidemiology

at the University of Alabama
at Birmingham.

I'm very passionate about
spending time outside.

And that has actually
contributed to my work

in physical activity with women.

NARRATOR: It was through
her work with women in fitness

that Olivia built her
friendship with Daheia.

OLIVIA: I've known Daheia for,
I don't know, maybe 15 years or so.

And I can't remember
when we first started talking,

and we started becoming friends.

But when we did, we found out
that we had a lot in common.

OLIVIA: We bond over, you know,
engaging in physical activity with women.

I'm more of a runner,
and she really is an expert in yoga.

Then we started being roommates
at our ACSM annual meetings.

And so we would always see each other
and reconnect at least once a year.

NARRATOR: In May 2019,
Olivia and Daheia meet up again

for the American College
of Sports Medicine's annual conference,

along with 6,000 other sports
medicine practitioners.

OLIVIA: It's myself and Daheia
and her mentoree, Scott.

DAHEIA: It's the end of May in Orlando,
and so the weather is beautiful.

OLIVIA: Tropical kind of
climate environment with lots of trees

and plants and flowers.

NARRATOR: After a long day of meetings,
they head out for a casual dinner.

OLIVIA: So, as we were walking to dinner,
I see two guys that are on a boom lift.

It appeared that the two guys
were changing the signs,

like those banner signs that you would see
in front of a convention center

about whatever event is going on.

At first, nothing seems
out of the ordinary.

Until I notice them sort of flailing.
And then the screaming starts.

[screams]

DAHEIA: We all hear the workers screaming,
and we look over.

And we see that they are
kind of surrounded by this swarm of bees.

OLIVIA: The swarm of bees just came out
like a mushroom cloud around them.

I've never seen that many bees.

And they were immediately attacking
the two guys that were on the lift.

And of course, they were screaming.

[screams]

NARRATOR: As Olivia and her friends
look on, the workers furiously try

to protect themselves
from the swarm of bees.

But their efforts seem futile.

Lower the lift!

You could hear
the terror in their voice.

- It was horrific. The screaming.
- There had to be thousands of bees.

It was like an opaque mass,
like of a cloud.

NARRATOR: The Honeybee.

A small winged insect known for its unique
social organization and honey production.

The most common bee, the Western Honeybee,
can live in hives of 80,000.

They play a crucial role in pollination,

and the female bees can deliver
a painful, venomous sting

from a tiny barb on their lower abdomen.

Dr. Juliana Rangel, associate professor
of apiculture at Texas A&M University,

has been studying honeybees since 2001.

JULIANA: Honeybees are insects
in the order Hymenoptera.

They are cousins to ants and wasps.

Probably what Olivia is observing
is a big honeybee swarm.

A honeybee colony is
considered a super organism.

A higher level entity that
lives together as one unit.

So, when a worker is going
to sting as a defense mechanism,

that is the ultimate way
in which they defend their colony.

And of course, they die upon stinging.

So when they sting,
that's it, they lose their life,

and they're willing to do so
for the good of their colony.

OLIVIA: They were very aggressive.

They appeared to have been resting
along the side of the pole.

And when the guys were
trying to change the sign,

they probably just moved
the sign that was there.

And I think they disturbed the bees.

They just descended from that pole

and completely covered the guys
within a matter of seconds.

And I knew that they were in trouble.

JULIANA: When the lift workers
are peeling off the banner,

they are making the bees aggravated

because they feel that
they need to defend their resting site.

And that's when the whole
swarming and defensive behavior starts.

When a colony is ready to
reproduce, it issues a swarm.

Which is a smaller unit of bees with
a queen that stops in a temporary place.

They're defending that resting place.

They feel threatened, they think
that they're probably gonna get eaten

or taken somewhere,
and so they are definitely

enacting their defensive
behavior to take care

of the queen and the rest of the colony.

- We need more help!
- [screams]

- Help! Help!
- Hey!

[screams]

DAHEIA: Anyone who knows me
knows that I went bonkers.

'Cause we had
two very different reactions.

And I started backing away
and going over to the left,

as far away from the bees as I can.

Olivia, she runs towards the two guys.

OLIVIA: I knew that I had to do something
because if they did not get help quick,

they were going to die.

I know there's a limit to how many stings
you can sustain before you die.

And so, I had to move as quickly
as possible to try to get them some help.

To try to get them out
of the swarm of bees.

JULIANA: These bees definitely seem to be
more aggressive

than the normal, gentle honeybee.

Which leads me to suspect that they come
from a specific lineage of bees

that is more aggressive
in general than others.

OLIVIA: I was like I have to do something.

And so, I noticed the police car
on the side of the street

and I just immediately ran for help.

I just tapped on the window, and I'm like,
"You have to call an ambulance right now.

We gotta get those guys down.
We gotta get them down."

And then I turn around,
and I run back over to the left.

The guy is trying to use the controls to
come down from the lift.

As the lift is coming down, I can see that
they are completely covered with bees.

Even though they have their
shirts over their heads,

the bees are still attacking
them through their shirts.

And on their hands and just everywhere.

And they are screaming bloody m*rder.

Help! Help!

NARRATOR: According to venom scientist,
Christie Wilcox,

the pain caused by venom is by design.

Bee venom's primary
purpose is to cause pain.

So, once you've been stung by a bee,
there is a gland full of venom,

and that whole system actually rips out
of the bee and stays inside of you.

And that muscle that pumps
the venom will keep pumping,

sticking more and more venom through that
needle into your body.

So, one bee sting tends
to be fairly harmless.

When you have hundreds
upon hundreds of bee stings,

all of a sudden, you are talking
about a very different dose of venom.

The danger when you have hundreds and
hundreds of stings,

is that you have this massive release
of histamine.

And that can cause your
throat to close, your heart to stop.

All sorts of very life threatening things.

I could see that there was
a fire extinguisher.

And I said to myself, "I have to be able
to do something with that."

As I try to get the fire extinguisher,
I'm immediately covered by bees.

They were stinging my head, my arms, my
hands, my legs, my feet.

Probably upwards of 100 stings.
I was just on fire.

[alligator growls]

JAMES: And when I looked at his mouth
open, my foot was down in it,

and his mouth was past my knee,
I knew there was a problem.

A major one because he started pulling me
back and trying to do a roll.

MARISA: The death roll
is very famous amongst crocodillians

in regards of dismembering prey.

So, an alligator would
latch on to a piece of prey.

And the force of the death roll,
it actually just comes from the snout.

And the force generated
from the turn of the snout,

it allows the alligator to dismember prey

that is much larger than
the alligator itself.

But it's not just about dismembering or,
in a sense, taking chunks out of prey.

But they'll also use it
as a way to injure an opponent,

so that they could get away
or possibly win a fight.

[screams]

TERISA: He's screaming very loud.
He's making a blood curdling scream.

- JAMES: Stay back!
- TERISA: "Get back."

"I'm telling you get back."
"What happened? What's wrong?"

JAMES: I rolled with him twice.
It felt like hours.

But it wasn't, it was only a few minutes.

And then I hit him again, he let go.

And that was my break.
It was like, "Oh..." [whistles]

I knew it was bad 'cause
I could just feel the warmth of the blood

running down my leg into my boot.

And the right side of my leg,
I couldn't feel.

Well, I knew if I did not tourniquet
my leg, I'm a dead man.

So, I turned around
and ripped my belt off, dropped my g*n,

and started tightening up my leg.

And he came running up from behind me
and grabbed me on the back of the leg.

A second time. Now, I can't see him.
That was my mistake.

Should never have turned my back.

MARISA: Turning your back to a predator
is a submissive position.

And so, that alligator
likely came back for him just to say,

"I have weakened my opponent.

My opponent is submissive, but I'm gonna
go one more time to let him know

that I am the winner
in this particular battle."

JAMES: Then when he did that,
I said, "That's it."

I'm just gonna sh**t him,
and I was gonna either blow my leg off

or blow him away
with my leg in it. I didn't care.

[alligator growls]

NARRATOR: In an effort to k*ll the
alligator and minimize damage to this leg,

James shoves the g*n barrel as far
into the alligator's mouth as he can.

JAMES:
I stuck the barrel inside his mouth,

and all of a sudden,
he let go, and he took off.

MARISA: James using his r*fle

and pounding
against the back of the throat,

most likely made the alligator release.

In the back of a crocodilian's throat, is
a sensitive area called the palatal valve.

It prevents water from going in
while swimming around or hunting.

The alligators would definitely
not want that to be damaged

because that would impact its ability
to be able to successfully hunt,

especially under water,
when it's trying to catch fish

or trying to catch a turtle.

TERISA: He's backing up
to get out of that area

and then he's telling me,
"Give me your belt. I need your belt."

And I'm dumping the gear.
I'm throwing my r*fle down.

I'm getting this belt.

And then he's tying
the belt around his leg.

- And he's like call 911.
- JAMES: Call 911.

And she knew it was bad
'cause she heard me screaming.

And she just lost it. I had to grab her,

snap her out of it and say,
"You have to gotta pay attention,

or I'm gonna lose my life here."

- JAMES: Get on that phone. Please.
- TERISA: [cries] I can't.

[breathes heavily]

I made a couple of attempts to get 911.
I couldn't.

The cell service there was very spotty.

JAMES: And she goes, "There's no signal."
I said, "I know."

Just keep calling. Keep calling.

I was in a cypress area
covered with trees, a canopy of trees.

You're not getting out like that.
But there is no open area either.

And I knew I had to get to where we could
be spotted. That was my number one.

TERISA: So we start walking
and b-line it through the water.

JAMES: And we're walking,
she's calling and calling.

We get the signal, lose the signal,
and it's spotty

'cause we're on the Martin County line
and Palm Beach County line.

TERISA: I was scared 'cause
now the water is up to my knees

and it's going into my boots,
and I know what's in this water.

There is the alligators, and there's
rattlesnakes and water moccasins.

Things that'll get you. And he's bleeding.

So, when you're bleeding,
and there are hungry animals,

the chances are higher
that something else is now gonna happen.

NARRATOR: Back in Orlando, Dr.
Olivia Affuso tries to save two workers

being attacked
by an aggressive swarm of bees.

She grabs a fire extinguisher
to spray the bees off the men.

But now she's under attack,
and the pain is intense.

OLIVIA: So, I've been stung before.

So, it's kind of like, you know,
going to get a needle at the doctor.

But now imagine
hundreds of needles at once.

And I just focused my mind,
and stay on the task at hand.

I couldn't leave them. And I got it out.
And I took the fire extinguisher,

I pulled the pin,
and I turned it on the guys,

trying to spray them,
so that they could escape from the bees

to be able to get out.

When Olivia grabbed
that fire extinguisher,

what she didn't know is that she was
doing something similar to the effects

of the smoker
that we use in bee keeping.

What the smoke is doing is dissipating
the release of the alarm pheromone.

So, it's calming the bees down, and
it's confusing them because it is mixing

the smell of the smoke
with the smell of the alarm pheromone.

Only she didn't know that this was
only a temporary fix.

OLIVIA:
And then I ran away from the bucket,

turned around, closed my eyes.

DAHEIA: She turns the fire
extinguisher on herself

and sprays herself
in the face and all over.

And it was just-- It's a blur.

It's a blur of like
all of this that's going on.

OLIVIA: And then I dropped fire
extinguisher right there on the sidewalk

and I run to the convention center.

And that's when my friend,
Daheia, came to save me.

And she starts swatting
my head to get the bees off of me.

DAHEIA:
I just start trying to fan them away,

and I know I'm smacking her in the head.

The bees are getting angrier and angrier

because we're hitting them
and swatting them.

JULIANA: That actually
aggravates the bees more.

Fast movements and high contrasts
of movements actually gets them

very aggravated,
and they want to sting at a faster rate.

DAHEIA: They're still swarming around.

My thought is we have
to get these bees off of Olivia,

and we need to get out of here.

NARRATOR: After surviving an alligator
attack, James Boyce and his wife, Terisa,

struggle through the dense growth
of the JW Corbett Wildlife Preserve.

James, losing blood rapidly,
is too weak to go any further.

TERISA: Finally, I get through to 911.

I'm JW Corbett.

My husband has got bit
really bad on the leg by an alligator.

And because we're on the border line
of these two management areas,

they're two different counties.

And I was afraid because it took so long
to get through. Please don't transfer me.

DISPATCHER: Hang on one second, ma'am.

Are you in Dupuis or Corbett?
'Cause those are two different counties.

- TERISA: I'm in Corbett.
- 911 DISPATCHER: Okay.

Alright, stay on the line,
I gotta transfer you to Palm Beach County.

Stay on the line, don't hang up.

TERISA: You cannot,
please don't transfer me.

I'm like, "Can I just get anybody,
somebody to come and help us?"

NARRATOR: After a few minutes,
Terisa is finally able to relay

their approximate location.

Operators immediately
dispatch a helicopter rescue.

TERISA: The 911 operator wanted me
to look and verify the amount of blood.

And he asked me to lift his
leg up, elevate his leg.

I pick up his leg
to put it up over my knees

and the blood just starts
pouring out of his boot.

And I'm like, "This is bad."

JAMES: I looked down at my leg,
and I could see bone and fat.

And veins and blood just squirting out.

And then he looks at me, and he goes,
"This is it, you know that right?"

So, he's saying goodbye to me.
And he's talking to me.

And I'm not listening. I refused.
I wasn't gonna let him die. I just wasn't.

JAMES: I know my wife. And I'd see at the
back of her mind, look through her eyes.

She kept telling me I wasn't gonna die.
But she thought I was.

And I knew too. I thought so too.

Because I do have a blood condition.
And it's hemochromatosis. It's very rare.

The blood count
on your platelets is major.

And mine normally is at 110.
Person's normal is 275, 350.

So, if I lose a lot of blood,
my body can't make it up.

And she's on the phone.
People couldn't find us.

We'd lose 'em,
and I said, "To hell with it."

I said, "Get on the phone,
ring and call all the boys."

I just wanted to make sure everybody knew
how much I loved them.

'Cause it gets real. And if you got
anything to say, say it now.

I called, I think it was Christopher, and
I said, "Look, man, I got bit by a gator."

And he thought I was joking.
I said, "Shut up and listen.

I don't know what's gonna happen."

I said, "I love you," I said my goodbyes
to him. "I gotta go." Call the next one.

TERISA: The kids is hard for me.
He says, "I love you. I'm proud of you.

You're gonna grow up to be a great person.
I want you to live your life.

I want you to do the things you wanna do."

And then he's done.

JAMES: And once I got that out,
the rest is easy.

And I mean, you're already
going out because you're passing out.

You're losing all your blood.
There's no help in sight.

So, you got that working for you,
then you just say, "Well, I'm just tired."

You accept it, and I did. 100 percent.

Said, "I'm gonna accept the death."
I was ready to go then.

NARRATOR: Am ambulance
takes the lift workers to the hospital.

But Olivia is left with
over 100 stings from her rescue effort.

Her friends, Daheia and Scott,
are able to get her into the safety

of the convention center.

I sat down in a chair
to wait on medical assistance.

I start to look down at my arm,

and I just can see all of
these little stingers on my arm.

And we start picking them out, at least
immediate ones that they see in my face

and on my arm.

Because, you know, the bees had
stung me here in my face.

And there were stingers still there.

JULIANA: When Daheia goes
and plucks the stingers out,

that, in theory, is a good idea,
depending on how quickly you're doing it.

Because it takes about 20 to 30 seconds
for the full contents of the venom gland

to be injected into the flesh.

Depending on how long
Daheia took to get rid of the stingers,

it may or may not have helped.

OLIVIA: And now that the adrenalin
was starting to come down

from what I had done,
then the pain started to come with it.

I just felt burning.

After the stingers were removed,
I just felt like I was on fire.

DAHEIA: Her skin isn't really dark right,

and so you could see the redness starting
to appear on her arms and on her neck.

But she wasn't complaining.
She wasn't yelling. She wasn't moaning.

And so I think we all underestimated
how much in pain she was.

And how urgent she needed care.

OLIVIA: And my blood pressure
started climbing really high.

And I've never had high
blood pressure in my life.

TERISA: This is serious now. I'm scared.
He's laying down. He's done.

And then I hear a helicopter.
And I get up, and I'm looking.

And here it comes.
And it's going, and it's circling.

And it looks like it's coming,
and I'm screaming, "Here."

It turns. And it goes the other way.

I'm on with 911, and I'm telling him,
"Tell them to turn around.

Tell him to turn around, tell him to
come back. He went the wrong way.

Tell him to bang a left."

I'm heartbroken.
That was our last chance.

JAMES: It's like looking
for a needle in a haystack.

I don't care, you could have orange,

you can have a lightning rod,
you can have what you want.

They can't find you.

TERISA: So my husband says,
"We should sh**t shots into the ground.

Somebody could hear us."
So, I put the shells in the g*n.

[g*nshots]

- JAMES: She was firing it like a champ.
- And I'm screaming, "Help! Help!"

TERISA:
[shouts] Somebody... [cries] help me.

Here comes the helicopter again.
I'm like, "Okay, maybe they'll see us."

[shouts] Over here! Over here!

As the helicopter's coming,
here comes the swamp buggy.

NARRATOR: Terisa's g*n shots alert fellow
hunters, Danny McCullen and his family.

TERISA: And I'm just like...
"Thank God."

Just thank God, there's somebody
here, there's somebody here.

And the lady that was
with them came right to me.

And she just grabbed me.
And I just-- I fell to the ground.

So, Danny runs back to his
buggy and grabs some zip ties.

Our tourniquet just-- it was wet.
It was stretched, it wasn't holding.

They just zip tie his leg.

JAMES: Woke up to Danny
McCullen and his family

zip tying my legs with the EZ Zip Ties.

They use them out there
for tying up pigs. It didn't stop it.

Instead of squirting out six inches,
it's just running down my leg now.

'Cause I was losing so much blood.

I started getting shivers.
I was going into shock.

So we're going through the woods,

and I'm holding my hand
and trying not to get hit by the trees.

And I'm just praying.

NARRATOR: Finally, they reach
a clearing where a helicopter can land.

JAMES: Course, I'm passing in and out.
Felt like a long ride to the helicopter.

We got in it, it was raining, it's windy.

I remember going up,
and I said, "You know what?"

Looked at my wife, and said,
"You know if I don't die here,

I'm gonna die in this helicopter."
Pilot was like, "This is bad weather."

And I'm like, "Yeah, this is it, and
if we're gonna die, this is meant to be."

NARRATOR: As Olivia suffers the effects
of a 100 plus bee stings,

outside the convention center,
the swarm of bees attacks.

OLIVIA: There were tons of other people
coming from the conference as well

and they were stung, and many of them
ran into the building with us.

DAHEIA: It was insane.
One lady, she was walking through,

and the bees attacked her,
and so she is trying to fan them.

And so she runs try to get indoors.
There was a lot going on.

[ambulance sirens]

NARRATOR: EMT's quickly arrive.

But with the chaos going on around her,

Olivia must wait
to receive medical attention.

You got the security guard, who's saying,
"I'm having difficulty breathing."

And then you have the other lady,
who says, "I'm allergic to bees.

I could die from a bee sting."
And so, she wasn't triaged first, right?

They were dealing with the other two.

OLIVIA: I was the one
that sustained the most stings,

but they were attending to other people.

And I understand that, but every time
the wave of fire came to me,

I became a little less understanding.
I just had to endure.

JULIANA: When a bee stings a person,

she can either have an
allergic reaction or a toxic reaction.

The allergic reaction is the
one that most people have,

which is localized swelling,

a little bit of pain,
redness around the area.

And potentially can last for a few days.

For some people, one or a few stings
of a honeybee can cause a toxic reaction

that can lead to anaphylactic shock.

And then they started with Olivia,
and they hooked her up.

We had to take her pulse and
check her blood pressure.

And her blood pressure was really high.

The upper like 150's,
over 90. It was really, really high.

It started to dawn on me, I think, at that
point in time, she was in a lot of pain.

NARRATOR:
Requiring additional medical aid,

Olivia is rushed to the nearest hospital.

OLIVIA: I am still on fire. My head
is k*lling me. I'm in extreme pain.

I'm hyperventilating.
My blood pressure is going up.

And I'm just wanting
something for this pain.

I felt like I was going to die.

OLIVIA:
I felt something crawling in my hair.

And I'm like is there a bee in my hair?

So, I reach up there and
I feel something moving.

So, then I grabbed that part
of my hair and I hold it.

And I throw it to the floor.

And sure enough, there was a bee,
and it was still alive.

The assistant quickly used
one of those little cups, specimen cups.

And he grabs it and twists
it and he runs out with it.

And he's showing all the
people at the nurses station.

Eventually, the nurse comes in,
and she hooks up the IV.

She has the three different
combinations of medication.

And she's going to administer them.
One is like Benadryl.

Another is like an anti-inflammatory.
That's good.

And then the third one
is a stomach medication

that they use as a
secondary anti-histamine.

As soon as she injects
that I started vomiting everywhere.

And I couldn't believe
that I had anything to vomit.

Remember, I never made it to dinner.

NARRATOR: After the medication,
Olivia is discharged

and walks back to the hotel with Daheia.

DAHEIA: The next day right, she's an
Epidemiologist, and we're investigators.

And so she wanted
to investigate the scene.

And so she goes back.

She was walking around with the bee
that was taken out of her hair.

I run into the other person
who had been stung.

And she said to me,
"One of the exhibitors is a beekeeper."

Who is very familiar with the bees.

And so, she pulls it out,
and the guy identifies it for her.

OLIVIA: And he said,
"Those were Africanized k*ller bees."

JULIANA:
Based on all of these facts,

the fact that there were so many stings
happening at the same time,

the fact that there was a very high amount
of alarm pheromone being released,

and a very wide active space,

leads me to believe that
these bees were Africanized.

NARRATOR: Africanized
honeybees often called k*ller bees,

are a hybrid of European
and African descent.

Bred in Brazil to increase
honey production,

the Africanized honeybee is known
to be more aggressively defensive.

And has caused over a 1,000 human deaths.

If you are unlucky enough to get one of
these aggressive swarms of bees riled up,

what you need to do is run as fast
as you can and seek shelter.

Unfortunately, what happened
to these workers was unavoidable

because they were unable to move from the
boom, and the bees will continue to sting.

There are a few stinging
deaths every year.

Most likely because the person
was unable to move.

What Olivia did was heroic, and
she helped save the lives of two people.

I probably won't run towards danger
unless I know I can do something.

If I'm ever in a dangerous situation,

when I am not equipped
to do something about it,

then I'm with someone who is equipped.

OLIVIA: The main thing I learned
from this whole experience is

that I am far stronger
than I probably give myself credit for.

And probably, also it confirms that
I really do have a high pain tolerance.

NARRATOR: Back in Palm Beach,
James Boyce fights to survive

the 45 minute flight to the hospital.

Paramedics give medication for the pain,
but the wounds to his leg are extensive.

It was mangled.
It was just a mangled piece of meat.

All of this water getting to it,

dirty water and infection,
and it's just hanging.

From the time he was bit,
to the time we arrived, and they got him

into the trauma room,
it was close to three hours.

JAMES: And they had the
team of doctors and nurses.

They cut all my clothes off.

The doctor himself,
he stuck his four fingers in that hole.

To see how deep it went.
And they would disappear.

And I screamed in pain. He's like,
"Give that man a shot of morphine.

Let's get him into surgery."

NARRATOR:
Because of James' hemochromatosis,

he's at a much higher risk
for severe complications.

A normal platelet count
ranges from 275 to 350.

James' is dangerously low.

And he looked at the blood work,
it was down to 50.

If you're down to 45, 40,
you start bleeding out of every orifice.

Your nose, your eyes,
your mouth. Then you die.

And it was getting to that point.

I get in the door.
I'm greeted with the Sheriff's department

and the game wardens. They have
a gator now that's bitten a human.

In most instances, they have
to remove that animal from the wild.

It's now considered even more dangerous
than it already is.

And by the time I get into the room,
they're wheeling him out.

So I never truly knew how bad it was
until they pulled him out of surgery.

NARRATOR:
Despite the extensive damage to his leg,

it could have been a lot worse.

The boot did save my leg.
And it was made for snakes.

Snake proof.

When he bit on top of my leg, he bit high,

just enough where he covered
the top of that boot too.

When he let go,
he ripped the top of the boot.

And then he got the
bottom of the boot too.

But if it wasn't for that kevlar boot,
he would have had 100 percent control

of that leg, and I would have lost it.

And it's definitely
saved me the second bite.

'Cause the second bite, he got the back
of my leg where the calf was.

So, if you're going out hunting,
let's say out in the swamps.

One, it is good to have
another person with you.

So, James's wife was ten feet behind.

It's possible, if she was closer to James,

this attack may not have happened
because the alligator's like,

"Oh, no, two against one,
mm-mm, not gonna happen."

The other thing that James could have done
is if there was a long stick, a long pole,

is just to kind of poke
around in front of him.

So, if he did scare something,
something's gonna lash at the pole

and not necessarily lash at his leg.

I almost lost my husband.

And I almost lost the father of my kids.

They need him.

JAMES: People ask, "You know,
were you scared of dying?" No, I wasn't.

It's funny how you make peace real quick.

And you start really thinking about,
you know, your family.

And family's really what you got.

And it made me and my wife
a lot closer, that's for sure.

TERISA: I knew James is
really good under pressure.

I just didn't ever know how good.

She was stronger than I thought
she would be. That's the truth.

So it was a test.
That was a test on both sides.

But she faired well apparently.

I mean, we're both out. We're both alive.
So, kudos, I guess.

NARRATOR: Ten days after James
gets the all clear from his doctors,

with some help from his sons,
he is back out hunting.

But this time, he's better prepared
and much more aware of the dangers.

My take away on this, if you're
gonna go hunting in any area, swamp,

make sure you know what's in there.

Don't always expect them to be in the
same spot or even in the same environment.

Come prepared for
the worst day of your life.

That will save your life.

OLIVIA: I think the whole situation
with the bees is just a product of nature.

We have to be adaptable the same way
that the bees are trying to be adaptable.

And so they just happened
to stop on that pole.

The guys just happened to not see them.

And disturbed them,
and so I don't blame the bees.

I just felt really sorry for the guys
who stumbled into them.

And were stung relentlessly.

But I'm also very grateful
that they survived,

and I'm grateful that I could have offered

whatever assistance
that I was able to on that day.