Number 8 Village teen dies after crashing car during bee attack

An 18-year-old resident of Number 8 Village, West Coast Berbice is now dead after he lost control of the vehicle he was driving when he was stung by bees on Sunday.

Stabroek News was told that Merve Melville was transporting his aunt, who survived the crash, to the hospital around 6.30 pm on Sunday when the accident occurred.

Melville’s aunt, Ingrid ‘Patsy’ Melville, 58, had been the victim of a vicious bee attack and needed to be taken to hospital. This newspaper learned that bees were still clinging to Ingrid Melville when she got into the car with her nephew to be taken to hospital.

It was while they were driving that the bees attacked Merve Melville, causing him to lose control of the Toyota Spacio motorcar.

He crashed into a utility pole and was in an unconscious state when he was rushed to the Fort Wellington Hospital (FWH).

He was treated and transferred to the New Amsterdam Hospital where emergency surgery was performed. He was then taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he succumbed.

Ingrid Melville, who is still a patient at the FWH, said: “I was in the yard raking up grass when the bees flew out from a hive,” and swarmed her.

She said she started screaming for her sisters to help her, but when the approached, the bees also attacked one of them.

The sister, she said “ran in some water” to get rid of the bees. Melville said she became confused and only wanted to get to the hospital.

In tears, she said she lost her mother three months ago and it was very hard to deal with losing her nephew in such tragic circumstances.