Daniel Owen, a 47-year old father, and his 15-year old son, Cooper, were killed by a  brutal attack from a swarm of hundreds of hornets. This occurred when they were ziplining in Laos while visiting an eco-adventure resort near the northern city of Luang Prabang. They believe that these hornets were Asian Giant Hornets that had nested in one of the trees Daniel and Cooper would have passed while they were on the zipline. Despite being covered in hundreds of red dots and welts, they were conscious while being transported to the hospital. They had no immediate signs of anaphylactic shock, but, sadly, they died just hours after they arrived at the Luang Prabang Provincial Hospital.

“A lot of stings, more than one hundred, over the whole body. I thought already that it’s a very dangerous situation because I had never seen it as bad as that,” Phanomsay Phakan, a doctor at the clinic where the father and son were taken, said. This quote shows that this case was very delicate and most doctors didn’t know how to proceed with treatment, simply because they had never seen a case such as this before. To see stings like the ones the father and son had gotten must’ve been a hard experience and difficult to treat. As sad as it was, this event was a great learning experience for new doctors, as well as some older doctors who had never seen a case like this before in their career. It is very unfortunate that they passed away shortly after they received treatment, but this was an important learning experience for biologists to learn new things about the Asian Giant Hornets, which will help with new medical advancements. 

This attack was very tragic, as the father was an American teacher and his son was so young. This was the first attack in a very long time and many people did not know how to react during this. A lot of doctors were shocked and did not know how to proceed with treatment since the father and son responded well when they first got to the hospital. The doctors thought that they would survive this attack, since they were never in anaphylactic shock and they were conscious when they arrived, so their death shocked them even more. The reason they died is still a shock and a slight mystery to everyone.