North Texas Man Survives 2-Hour Bee Attack

North Texas Man Survives 2-Hour Bee Attack

Reporting
Joel Thomas

GRAHAM (CBS 11 News) ― A North Texas man credits God and a cell phone for helping him survive a two-hour long bee attack. It all happened in Graham, west of Mineral Wells.

James Dunsworth was clearing away cedar trees with his bulldozer on Monday when the 72-year-old hit a bee hive deep inside one of the trees. "Just about one o'clock," he said, "I hit that tree that had all the bees in it, and those bees came up just like smoke out of that tree."

The bees attacked Dunsworth, knocking him from the tractor and onto the ground. "They come right under the hood of that dozer, right in on me," he explained. "I just laid there and thought, I'm going to have to do something or I'm going to die right here.

As Dunsworth rolled down a nearby hill, the bees climbed inside his mouth and ears, stinging his face and arms. "They stung in my mouth, my ears, all over my head and on my arms. I had a pair of overalls on, or it probably would have got worse," he said.

Then, "I just happened to think about my cell phone," Dunsworth said. He dialed 911.

Dunsworth: These bees are covering me up! Killer bees!
Dispatcher: Have you been stung?
Dunsworth: All over! They're all over me!

"Look at my ears," Dunsworth said tugging at his large, swollen ears almost completely covered in bumps from bee stings. "My ears don't usually stick out at that. They're just solid where they got inside of 'em."

Dunsworth said he rolled down a hill trying to get the bees off of him.

"There's a cedar tree right down there where I rolled down the hill. I got under it and took them branches and flopped it back and forth kind of knocking 'em away from me."

It took two hours for rescue crews to find Dunsworth, clinging to life under a tree in the remote area.

According to Dunsworth, one thought kept him alive during these two hours of waiting for help. He had to take care of his daughter with cerebral palsy. "I got to thinking about my little daughter, and I thought, I'm going to try to fight it out if I can. That's what I done," he said.

"It was a terrible experience," Dunsworth said of the torturous attack. "I wouldn't want to see anybody go through that. That's the worst punishment I ever had."

Dunsworth is now recovering at JPS Hospital in Fort Worth. His muscles are still stiff, and doctors intend to watch him for a couple more days. Still, he is lucky to be alive. "I know I wouldn't have been here today if I hadn't had that little cell phone," he said.

Dunsworth held up the small flip phone which, as a background, has a picture of a woman playfully sticking out her tongue at the camera. It is a picture of his daughter.