Jack Barnes and the Irukandji Enigma
In 1961, Jack Handyside Barnes, his nine year-old son, and a local surf lifesaver were rushed to Cairns Base Hospital after developing Irukandji syndrome.
In 1961, Jack Handyside Barnes, his nine year-old son, and a local surf lifesaver were rushed to Cairns Base Hospital after developing Irukandji syndrome.
John (Jack) Handyside Barnes (1922-1985) was an Australian medical practitioner and toxinologist. 1964 the first specimens of the small stinger Carukia barnesi (Irukandji)
Irukandji Syndrome - originally a mystery was solved by some self experimentation of Dr Jack Barnes, his nine-year old son and local surf lifesaver. He proved that the thumbnail sized carybdeid (or four tentacled box jellyfish) could cause Irukandji syndrome but placing it on all three of them.
Irukandji syndrome is a distressing envenoming secondary to the sting of Carukia barnesi and other, as yet unidentified, jellyfish found in coastal waters of tropical Australia.
Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 233 - Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, some medical trivia FFFF.
You are working as a locum doctor in the Northern Territory. Your patient is a 32 year-old Indonesian man who says he was stung while hauling in a net on an offshore fishing vessel.
It's Christmas, and you're called by a doctor who has recently arrived in Australia from the UK. He is in North Queensland looking after a 23 year-old female swimmer who doesn't look at all well...
RAGE Session 4: Getting the right side right, humans in the resus, Jack Barnes, Irukandji Syndrome, & Guy Martin's 'Words of Wisdom'