A lot. One woman shared that it was worse than giving birth to a child.
Naomi Lewis was biking in North Queensland in Australia when she came off her vehicle. While she was lucky that she landed on something soft to cushion her landing, it was unfortunate that it was the Gympie-Gympie plant.
The flora, also known as the 'giant Australian stinging tree,' is a member of the nettle family. It can grow in rainforests in Australia and Malaysia. The plant can inject venom into anyone who falls on it. An unfortunate soul can experience extreme pain that can stay for a lot of months, as Lewis experienced. The sensation of pain is described as 'being burnt with hot acid and electrocuted at the same time’.
She spent six months in physical torture, even after her husband rushed her to a pharmacy to obtain some medicine and hair removal strips to remove the stinging hairs embedded in her skin when she fell. “The pain was just beyond unbearable. The body gets to a pain threshold and then I started vomiting. I’ve had four kids – three caesareans and one natural. Childbirth, none of them even come close,” she told ABC News.
Image credit: Naomi Lewis