A young boy almost died after he suffered a severe allergic reaction to hairy caterpillars crawling along a tree he had been climbing.
Yarren, who was six-years-old at the time, had been scaling trees in Noosa Heads Lions Park in Queensland in June of 2023.
His reaction to the poisonous caterpillars caused him to ‘see rainbows’ before he climbed down from the tree, vomited and started having a seizure.
An anaphylactic reaction has the potential to be fatal if left untreated.
Symptoms can include difficulty breathing, swelling of the lips, tongue, and throat, wheezing, slurred speech, heart palpitations and nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea.
A nasty rash developed on Yarren’s skin that came into contact with the caterpillar.
He suffered seven seizures before an ambulance arrived and took him to Noosa Private Hospital where doctors placed Yarren into an induced coma.
He was then airlifted to Sunshine Coast University Hospital by a LifeFlight crew.
Critical Care doctor Hamish Brown said the 12-minute trip saved the boy’s life.
‘[He was] very, very unwell,’ he said.
‘The 12-minute flight compared to the 45-minute trip by road was necessary because we didn’t really know why [he was] so critically unwell.’
Yarren’s rash was getting worse and his airways were closing throughout the flight.
Luckily, Dr Brown said Yarren technically never left the intensive care unit since they had all the equipment on board with them.
‘[He was] in that ICU bubble the entire time and we didn’t take our eyes off [him] during the flight,’ he said.
Despite reassurances from doctors that Yarren would be fine, his father Greg was still uncertain if his son would make it.
‘They were very methodical and calm. But my mind wasn’t,’ Greg said.
‘My mind was still running 100 miles an hour. Because my little boy is laying there in an induced coma and we don’t have a clue what’s going on.’
Before the LifeFlight helicopter took off Greg began filming what he thought might be the last documentation of his son alive.
In the heartbreaking footage, the terrified dad is heard telling Yarren he loves him and that he will ‘see him soon’.
Two weeks later, Greg returned to the park to try and figure out what had caused Yarren to become so ill so fast.
Initially he was looking for spiders but soon spotted a hairy caterpillar nest in the tree.
Dr Brown said Yarren’s response to the poisonous caterpillars had been the most severe he had ever seen during his career as a doctor.
‘Anaphylaxis with some significant and severe systemic involvement is very rare. Yarren is the only child I have encountered clinically in 14 years working as a doctor to have suffered such a reaction,’ he said.
Yarren’s parents now make sure to carry an Epi-Pen everywhere they go.
After making a full recovery, Yarren returned to the Sunshine Coast to thank the LifeFlight aeromedical team who likely saved his life.