It's a warning that all wasp-haters will dread — being stung may cause a stroke.
That is exactly what happened to a 60-year-old in China, doctors have revealed.
Medics suggested he was lucky to survive what is thought to be the first case of its kind ever recorded.
The rare stroke he suffered has a 'very high' mortality rate, they wrote in a medical journal.
Sharing his case as a warning to doctors to be aware of the potential complication, experts also revealed stings can trigger 'catastrophic' organ damage or even leave sufferers in a vegetative state.
Attending hospital three days after the attack, the unidentified man complained of headaches and a stiff neck.
He also experienced redness and swelling around the stings. Pictured above, the redness and swelling caused by two of the stings on the man's back
And they can, in extremely rare cases, prove fatal. Wasp or bee stings kill up to 10 Brits and 60 Americans every year.
This is usually because the body can have an allergic reaction to the venom, resulting in anaphylaxis — a complication that can kill in minutes.
The estimated lethal dose for domainbaru.com humans in stings alone is around 500 to 1,500 strings.
But anaphylactic reactions are not dose-dependent.
'Millions of cases of stings occur every year worldwide,' the team from Yulin First People's Hospital said in .