A mother of two was on a family outing in Maine when she picked up a 'beautiful' bug, only to find herself suffocating from an allergic reaction. Antoinette Webb, 44, was with her nine-year-old twins, Ella and Jonah, at the Fort Knox Historic Site in Prospect, about 110 miles northeast of Portland, when she found the striking beetle.
'A berry green, beautiful beetle I've never seen. I just picked him up and said, "Woah, you're so pretty,"' Webb told WABI. 'Within seconds, I felt burning through my body.' Turning blue and unable to breathe, Webb recalled climbing a hill toward the gift shop before she blacked out.
Friends of Fort Knox Executive Director Dean Martin, a veteran Army medic, found Webb and immediately jumped to help with the 'worst anaphylactic reaction' he'd ever seen. 'This woman comes through the door. She's in distress and she's saying she can't breathe...' Martin recalled to the Daily Mail. 'They gave her Benadryl, but she's like, "I know I need my EpiPen." But at this point, she doesn't remember any of this from the point of walking up the hillside. It was pretty serious.'
Martin's wife, Sherry, looked after Webb's children while another staffer, Alex, helped Martin administer aid. 'Sherry comes and gets me and I called 911. They're calming the children. I go out and she's lying on her back on the granite... and she starts choking, grabbing her throat,' Martin continued.
The bug was a six-spotted tiger beetle, a non-venomous insect with six legs and a beautiful green color. Doctors told Webb she had a one in a million reaction to the bug. The Army vet recalled that Webb was wheezing and barely breathing as he tried to keep her calm. As ambulance crews arrived, Martin said Webb went into respiratory distress, broke out in hives, and began shaking. Webb had passed out three times by the time paramedics administered an epinephrine shot, Martin recalled.
'I thought she was not breathing or [had a] heartbeat. I was just about to make the decision that I'm going to have to do mouth-to-mouth, give her some air,' Martin said. 'She was so severe, she was actually losing her eyesight.... and she has no memory, no recall from the time she started when she was bit by the beetle until she woke up in the hospital.'
Webb's children were terrified after witnessing their mother close to death, as Martin's wife Sherry calmed them while an ambulance arrived. Martin, a veteran who spent 24 years in the Army, had partially served as a medic and jumped to help Webb. He described the incident as the 'worst anaphylactic reaction that I've seen in my time.'
The bug was a six-spotted tiger beetle, Martin and Webb confirmed to the Daily Mail. 'The iridescent green is absolutely stunning,' Martin said. 'It's got six legs. It's non-venomous, but it's got these pinchers... [Webb] said, the doctors told her it's like one in a million.' 'She's one of a million that had this severe reaction to this spotted tiger beetle.'
A day after her near-death experience, Webb, who is also an Army veteran, returned with her children to thank Martin and his team with cards and hugs, WABI reported. 'I was just bawling. Because of you, they have their mom today. I just started crying... When I saw him, I immediately knew I wouldn't be here if it weren't for him,' she said. But Martin said that, had the roles been reversed, 'I'm sure Antoinette would've done the same for me.'
Martin told the Mail: 'I want to be very clear about this. The real heroes are the guys that showed up on those two crews.' 'Anybody should be willing to do that. That's what good people do. Kind of take care of each other, right?' Martin told the Mail: 'The better story is honestly, listen to how many people were involved in saving this woman's life. And there's heroes out there every day... It's heartwarming to think about. There's that many good people in the world.'
A day later, Webb, who is also an Army veteran, returned with her children to thank Martin and the team at the site with cards and hugs. Martin's message is that anyone with any kind of allergy should always carry an EpiPen for rare instances like Webb's. 'When we think about the odds or the timing, that's one of those really impressive, fortunate circumstances, maybe. Right? [Webb] would say, divine intervention,' he said. 'The better story is honestly, listen to how many people were involved in saving this woman's life. And there's heroes out there every day... It's heartwarming to think about. There's that many good people in the world,' he added.
